Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about reproductive care with healthcare providers and medical students in Portage, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) **FILE**

Should children’s doctors, heart specialists, and cancer specialists be spending as much time and money focused on what’s going on in Ukraine, the Middle East, climate change, and race relations as they are? Or perhaps focus on the medical issues facing children, heart patients, and those folks with cancer?

Stop treating doctors with such reverence and as if they are infallible gods that can’t be questioned. We are blessed by God with incredible medicines and medical procedures, medical equipment, and some excellent physicians, surgeons, and nurses. That said though, the medical disciplines are becoming very tainted and misguided. Wandering. Into dangerous territory.

Don’t we all pay more than enough for medical care and prescription medication in America? For health insurance? For Medicare as premiums go up for those on Medicare what the supplemental health insurance companies are offering decrease and costs rise?

Don’t be timid or afraid to speak openly with any doctor. When I was about to have my first back surgery, I’d never had any surgeries to that point, I said to the orthopedic back surgeon;

“I’m aware that fifty percent of all doctors practicing graduated in the bottom fifty percent of their class. And fifty percent of them just passed their test to become licensed.”

The doctor, who I had only meet about five minutes earlier said, “Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

And within a minute he was back. Showing me documentation of how he had graduated top of his class at Ohio State University Medical School.

Then he said, “You’re right. There are a lot of knucklehead doctors out there. I’m not one of them. And in my fifteen years of practicing, I’ve never had a patient say to me what you did.”

The exact dialog that took place that day.

And from that moment on we became more than doctor and patient. And he performed all four of my major back surgeries. And we laughed a lot together. Talked about many things. Like, before my fourth back surgery, he told me, “You’re going to pay for my Harley with this surgery.”

I replied, “Glad to help you out.”

Later to discover his dream of owning a Harley was squashed by his wife. She was very wise. Wasn’t going to have the golden hands and great surgical ability get hurt and no longer provide the golden eggs.

Don’t be afraid to speak up. In a gentle, kind, yet bold and direct manner. It’s your health. It’s your money. Ask. Always ask. Be as informed as possible. And no one needs a social justice leftist doctor or medical facility, a medical practitioner. Do they?

Isn’t it reassuring, so comforting to know that the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology have all our medical concerns and problems solved and now have time to focus on affirmative action, racism, climate change, immigration, Ukraine and what’s going on in the Middle East?

Oh, aren’t doctors and the medical industry just amazing?!

Read on…

…oh, and you might want to begin being vocal about this to your doctor, your health providers, and the hospitals you go to in a very nice, calm, informed way. And maybe let your representatives know your views on this matter.

Maybe it’s time for the AMA and all the medical societies and doctors to focus 100% on what they are supposed to. Especially when it comes to children’s medical care, heart care, and cancer. Just saying.

Ken Pullen, Friday, November 22nd, 2024

Medically woke: Report finds U.S. medical societies back liberal policies unrelated to research

Thursday, November 21, 2024

By Sean Salai

Reprinted from The Washington Times

A vast majority of leading American medical societies have adopted left-leaning political positions unrelated to their health specializations, a study released this week by the anti-woke medical advocacy group Do No Harm found.

The group looked at statements from 28 of the nation’s leading medical societies since 2010 and found that 26, or 93%, had published statements on affirmative action or racism, 57% on climate change, 50% on immigration, 39% on Ukraine, and 18% on Middle East conflicts.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology have spoken publicly on all five issues, even though the topics are outside their expertise.

Do No Harm argues that the statements are politically correct, lean heavily to one side of the political spectrum, and undercut the groups’ credibility and perceived objectivity. The medical groups also take positions on contested issues that not all members support.

“The politicization of medical societies represents a betrayal of the public’s trust in health care,” said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm’s chairman and a former associate dean for curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school. “Dues-paying members of the societies and the public they serve should expect nothing less than institutional neutrality from all specialist groups.”

Do No Harm searched the associations’ websites for official statements on political issues and events in press releases, open letters and academic journals.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists posted a statement on the dangers of man-made climate change in 2016 and updated it in 2021. It “calls on our national and international leaders to act to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit further climate destabilization.”

Only two societies, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Academy of Dermatology, have not issued any policy statements on hot-button issues.

“We are aware of the report but do not have a comment at this time,” said Deanna Killackey, a spokeswoman for the Illinois-based American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. “Please don’t hesitate to reach out for other stories.”

Lobbying record

The report compared the societies’ public statements with an estimated $13.5 million that the website OpenSecrets said they devoted to political lobbying this year. It concluded that most of that money, unlike the rhetoric, focused on relevant public health issues rather than the political statements posted online.

Do No Harm said the American Academy of Dermatology spent $1.2 million to push for taxes on tanning beds, and the American College of Cardiology directed $970,000 to support tobacco prevention policies “because they see these agendas as important to their causes.”

Eleven medical societies issued statements condemning Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but just five spoke out about the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023.

The American College of Cardiology condemned the Oct. 7 attack against Israel on Oct. 15. Two weeks later, it revised its position to note “that no statement at any one point in time can truly reflect the diversity of perspective and the impact of the dynamic and fluid nature of the events and their consequences to the lives of all those in the region.”

“As such, the College will make no further statements on this crisis,” the group said.

The Washington Times reached out for comment to all 28 medical associations. They either did not respond or declined to comment.

“Thanks for reaching out to us,” said Brian Edwards, a spokesman for the American College of Surgeons. “We do not have any comment on this report.”

Do No Harm found that the group released statements condemning systemic racism, expressing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and warning against the dangers of climate change.

Racism was the most popular political issue for U.S. medical associations.

In a 2020 statement posted on its website in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter protests, the surgeons group declared that ending “police brutality against people of color” is “among the most important missions of the ACS.”

The U.S. medical establishment has endorsed multiple racial diversity initiatives in recent years, which could put it at odds with legal rulings, including the Supreme Court decision last year challenging many race-based affirmative action programs.

The American Medical Association has posted on its website a “strategic plan to embed racial justice” into the medical profession.

The AMA pledges in the statement to “play a more prominent role in the current national reckoning on equity and justice” by using its “training platforms, programs, advocacy, communication and marketing infrastructure” as “levers for change.”

In 2022, nine researchers published a survey of 16 “expert(s) in anti-Black racism” who work in medical schools in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It recommended that all non-Black faculty members undergo mandatory sensitivity training as part of a “comprehensive intervention for dismantling anti-Black racism.”

Conservative medical advocates have resisted such policies. They argue that patient care suffers when medical associations put politics ahead of their fundamental scientific mission. President Trump clashed repeatedly with the scientific establishment during his first four years in office, and his reelection victory this month could set the stage for further clashes.

The venerable Scientific American journal has endorsed only two presidential candidates in its 180-year history: Democrat Joseph R. Biden when he ran against Mr. Trump in 2020 and his vice president, Kamala Harris, when she ran against Mr. Trump this year. A longtime editor with the magazine resigned shortly after she deleted social media messages this month describing Mr. Trump’s supporters as “the meanest, dumbest, most bigoted” people.

Some welcomed the Do No Harm report on the political activism of medical associations.

“Pushback against the anti-science insanity driving almost all medical societies is long overdue and most welcome,” said Katy Talento, an epidemiologist who served as Mr. Trump’s top health adviser at the White House Domestic Policy Council.

“The most shameful example has to be the American Academy of Pediatrics, with their commitment to school closures, Ozempic for 6-year-olds, gender mutilations for confused kids and much more,” she said. “Maybe if they spent more time trying to figure out why half of America’s kids have a chronic illness when almost none did a generation ago, they might retain a shred of credibility.”