In a recent issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology, Vandenbroucke et al. critique the supposedly growing domination of the ‘counterfactual [and] interventionist’ approach on causality thinking in epidemiology. The authors argue that we should prefer a pluralistic and pragmatic approach for causal inference in epidemiology. They also state that the counterfactual and interventionist approach could damage training in epidemiology. I would rather argue that this approach not only helps training in epidemiology but also could be part of the cure to save risk factor epidemiology.