Since, obviously, the "stable genius" and his minions have such vast capabilities in judging scientific enquiry. This is the equivalent of a kindergartner questioning the qualifications of a college professor.
I respect your perspective but I think this is off point. The issue is not the government’s knowledge level, it’s the infringement on first amendment rights that should be concerning. Your take suggests that if the DOJ had adequate expertise, it could justifiably regulate publishers’ activities.
Even the majority of Americans who voted for the duly elected president, and those who lament the partisan turn of medical publishing, might pause and take note of the implications of the DOJ’s actions—and the fact that the other journals were too frightened to even speak up about a blatant infringement on their constitutional rights.
It's also probably worthwhile noting that the current head of NIH has openly called the front line doctors, such as myself, "liars" who inflated the numbers of covid deaths for financial gain. Despite the fact that he was over 2000 miles away and has no relevant expertise (never even went to residency) and has never treated ANY patients as an attending physician much less a critically ill covid patient.
All doctors need to speak up now. The time to worry about staying apolitical is over.
I agree with everything you're saying, but I also think we need to go deeper. How did the NIH director develop such an enormous (and monetized) following and social media platform in the first place? Where did all that anger and distrust and disillusionment come from, or grow out of? How and when and why did a majority of Americans come to support these actions (DOGE, etc) at least initially? We're certainly not going to figure it all out here, but to me it's important to always keep returning to the fact that most voting Americans--our neighbors, coworkers, and for those of us not completely insulated, friends--chose this. It's them I want to reach most. Not to shame or blame or cast stones, but for us all to find some common ground for healing and a return to shared purpose.
Another way to say this is that I don't think the minority party is going to win elections without engaging on a deeper level with why people are hurting so badly or feel so estranged from these institutions that they would support these extreme and un-American policies.
This is true, but the knowledge level in this case is fairly relevant as well. They have heavily pushed ineffective drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, openly espoused (during a presidential debate, no less) the debunked conclusion that vaccines cause autism, openly speculated on the use of disinfectant and UV light to treat Covid, and then there's RFK Jr the head of HHS. Among many other things, he has questioned in his books if AIDS is caused by HIV, called the covid vaccine "the deadliest vaccine ever made", and even questioned GERM THEORY! And that is a very partial list.
I could keep going, but you get the point. Organizations such as Chest should have spoken out loudly against the nomination of RFK Jr to head HHS. It WOULD have made a difference.
I would say that the distrust came overwhelmingly from the spreaders of misinformation, including our current head of HHS. I am really beyond sick of listening to those like Vinay Prasad claiming incessantly that the medical community is responsible for this loss of trust. Misinformation spreads like wildfire, and rhis has always been the case. But now this effect has been greatly amplified in the era of social media and podcast hosts such as Rogan/Weinstein. Vinay had a lot more time on his hands than those of us on the front lines because he works in an unrelated specialty and nowhere near NYC. Thats easy for him to go on podcasts and make is his ignorant observations and to demonize those like Dr Fauci who devoted half a century to the service of combating infectious disease.
The fact that this had to be “leaked” by Chest is alarming and indicates they are not taking this anywhere near as seriously as they should. This should be a four alarm fire for the medical profession. We have TO SPEAK UP!
I sometimes wonder how much money I could have made during the pandemic if I had sold my soul and been a "contrarian". Fox/Rogan/twitter/etc would have been all over it. A doctor who actually practices a relevant specialty and who is at the front lines who tells us what we want to hear! Not a cardiologist (Ladapo, Mccullough), radiologist (Atlas), hematologist (Prasad), pathologist (Cole), addiction ("Dr Drew") or whatever Bhattacharya claims to be (never even did residency), but someone who actually has relevant experience and expertise. And not even a spy novelist like Berenson, or an "evolutionary biologist" like Weinstein!
I could have made a fortune. But then I could never have looked in the mirror for the rest of my life.
If the thought is that they can just blow this off somehow, or this will be thrown away easily in court, Chest will be making a disastrous mistake. This administration has shown its willingness to withdraw federal funding and sick the IRS on private educational institutions, such as Harvard, or public news channels, such as NPR and PBS. This threat is real.
We already have an anti-vaxx lunatic heading the HHS who has decimated the NIH and CDC and who has commissioned a known anti-vaxx, non-scientist to head a new "study" on finding a link between childhood vaccines and autism. They will of course come to a flawed conclusion that there is one, and will now have the official stamp of the NIH on it.
And now this administration is pretty openly showing plans to control what our medical journals publish. Remember ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, among others? Notice the ongoing lack of understanding (including from the head of HHS himself) over what VAERS data actually represents?
We are beyond time where organizations such as Chest should worry about staying apolitical. They need to speak up, and loudly, NOW.
Since, obviously, the "stable genius" and his minions have such vast capabilities in judging scientific enquiry. This is the equivalent of a kindergartner questioning the qualifications of a college professor.
I respect your perspective but I think this is off point. The issue is not the government’s knowledge level, it’s the infringement on first amendment rights that should be concerning. Your take suggests that if the DOJ had adequate expertise, it could justifiably regulate publishers’ activities.
Even the majority of Americans who voted for the duly elected president, and those who lament the partisan turn of medical publishing, might pause and take note of the implications of the DOJ’s actions—and the fact that the other journals were too frightened to even speak up about a blatant infringement on their constitutional rights.
It's also probably worthwhile noting that the current head of NIH has openly called the front line doctors, such as myself, "liars" who inflated the numbers of covid deaths for financial gain. Despite the fact that he was over 2000 miles away and has no relevant expertise (never even went to residency) and has never treated ANY patients as an attending physician much less a critically ill covid patient.
All doctors need to speak up now. The time to worry about staying apolitical is over.
I agree with everything you're saying, but I also think we need to go deeper. How did the NIH director develop such an enormous (and monetized) following and social media platform in the first place? Where did all that anger and distrust and disillusionment come from, or grow out of? How and when and why did a majority of Americans come to support these actions (DOGE, etc) at least initially? We're certainly not going to figure it all out here, but to me it's important to always keep returning to the fact that most voting Americans--our neighbors, coworkers, and for those of us not completely insulated, friends--chose this. It's them I want to reach most. Not to shame or blame or cast stones, but for us all to find some common ground for healing and a return to shared purpose.
Another way to say this is that I don't think the minority party is going to win elections without engaging on a deeper level with why people are hurting so badly or feel so estranged from these institutions that they would support these extreme and un-American policies.
This is true, but the knowledge level in this case is fairly relevant as well. They have heavily pushed ineffective drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, openly espoused (during a presidential debate, no less) the debunked conclusion that vaccines cause autism, openly speculated on the use of disinfectant and UV light to treat Covid, and then there's RFK Jr the head of HHS. Among many other things, he has questioned in his books if AIDS is caused by HIV, called the covid vaccine "the deadliest vaccine ever made", and even questioned GERM THEORY! And that is a very partial list.
I could keep going, but you get the point. Organizations such as Chest should have spoken out loudly against the nomination of RFK Jr to head HHS. It WOULD have made a difference.
I would say that the distrust came overwhelmingly from the spreaders of misinformation, including our current head of HHS. I am really beyond sick of listening to those like Vinay Prasad claiming incessantly that the medical community is responsible for this loss of trust. Misinformation spreads like wildfire, and rhis has always been the case. But now this effect has been greatly amplified in the era of social media and podcast hosts such as Rogan/Weinstein. Vinay had a lot more time on his hands than those of us on the front lines because he works in an unrelated specialty and nowhere near NYC. Thats easy for him to go on podcasts and make is his ignorant observations and to demonize those like Dr Fauci who devoted half a century to the service of combating infectious disease.
The fact that this had to be “leaked” by Chest is alarming and indicates they are not taking this anywhere near as seriously as they should. This should be a four alarm fire for the medical profession. We have TO SPEAK UP!
The monetization and amplification of distrust has been among the most dismaying and corrosive phenomena I have ever witnessed.
I sometimes wonder how much money I could have made during the pandemic if I had sold my soul and been a "contrarian". Fox/Rogan/twitter/etc would have been all over it. A doctor who actually practices a relevant specialty and who is at the front lines who tells us what we want to hear! Not a cardiologist (Ladapo, Mccullough), radiologist (Atlas), hematologist (Prasad), pathologist (Cole), addiction ("Dr Drew") or whatever Bhattacharya claims to be (never even did residency), but someone who actually has relevant experience and expertise. And not even a spy novelist like Berenson, or an "evolutionary biologist" like Weinstein!
I could have made a fortune. But then I could never have looked in the mirror for the rest of my life.
If the thought is that they can just blow this off somehow, or this will be thrown away easily in court, Chest will be making a disastrous mistake. This administration has shown its willingness to withdraw federal funding and sick the IRS on private educational institutions, such as Harvard, or public news channels, such as NPR and PBS. This threat is real.
We already have an anti-vaxx lunatic heading the HHS who has decimated the NIH and CDC and who has commissioned a known anti-vaxx, non-scientist to head a new "study" on finding a link between childhood vaccines and autism. They will of course come to a flawed conclusion that there is one, and will now have the official stamp of the NIH on it.
And now this administration is pretty openly showing plans to control what our medical journals publish. Remember ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, among others? Notice the ongoing lack of understanding (including from the head of HHS himself) over what VAERS data actually represents?
We are beyond time where organizations such as Chest should worry about staying apolitical. They need to speak up, and loudly, NOW.
There is so much that is disturbing about this, but the journals’ silence upon receiving these letters is what scares me the most.
Also, how ridiculous is it that an official letter, of this gravity, would contain obvious typos? "I look forward to I look forward to"???