How do you determine policy when you don't have the hard scientific facts and when a public health threat is probable but not certain?
Most people do not understand basic scientific facts about happiness, about what creates and sustains it, and they consequently do not spend money in ways that optimize their happiness.
As an experimenter and practical user of scientific facts, Franklin looked for easier and better ways to do things.
The boundary between scientific facts and science fiction has become a bit blurred.