She is right! Doomscrolling and getting angry accomplishes nothing. It’s the rest I wonder about.
The idea that doctors— particularly hematologist oncologists (in this case a pediatric heme onc doctor based in the purple state of Michigan)— should encourage patients to vote is a claim I have heard more frequently in recent years.
Strangely, I have never heard it from a doctor who is known to vote Republican, but only from doctors known to vote Democrat. How could I possibly know how this doctor plans to vote you ask?
It’s an interesting situation where a doctor— who has only and faithfully tweeted full support for one political party— plans to encourage patients to vote, and give trainees the time to vote.
There are 5 reasons why this is a bad idea
It is can’t be done consistently. Imagine, bringing in your 5 year old with diffuse midline glioma to see the doctor. The child is dying, and the doctor patiently councils the family what to expect in the weeks to come. Everyone’s heart is broken. At the end of the visit, the doctor says and, “after you get your labs, I encourage you to take the time to vote either in person or by mail. It is vital for our democracy.” It would be tone deaf and inappropriate to change the topic like this, and as such, the policy of encouraging voting can never be universal. If not universal, it is biased. Dire illness, socioeconomics and voting have associations.
It forces people to disclose their citizenship or prior felony status. These factors are not relevant to their care, and may undermine the doctor-patient relationship. Ironically the doctor’s political goals (get Biden elected) is clashing with the fundamental liberal principle of health equity and right to privacy. You may say, “well the patient doesn’t have to say their immigration status.” I can assure you, as a doctor who cares for many people with varying immigration statuses, the mere mention the topic can cause concern.
It’s not just “vote”. It is vote for Joe Biden, if we are honest. Inherently, the doctor’s political bias is reflected in the encouragement. What happens if the patient’s father is wearing a MAGA hat. Do you still remind them to vote? Or do you conveniently forget? Perhaps best not to remind *him*.
It is a misuse of the doctor’s powerful role. Imagine there is a conservative resident. (I know, I don’t know how they got in either)— he or she may feel as if they want to avoid the topic with an attending who tweets explicitly to vote for Joe Biden. I strongly suspect conservative students could successfully litigate a medical school for providing an unfair and discriminatory work environment. But regardless, it is a misuse of power.
5. It is just not a priority. Doctors can remind patients to change the battery in the smoke detector, finish their taxes, and vote, but none of these things are a priority. Most clinic visits are already the bare bones (15 mins), and I find it impossible to believe patients and parents have so few concerns that there is time to encourage their parents to vote. Doctors have to prioritize what matters most, and voting just isn’t it.
Doctors are free to encourage people to vote just like any other person standing in front of whole foods with a clipboard, but when I am feeling sick, or worried about my health, I want them to focus on that issue, and I think it is inappropriate to hijack my visit with their political agenda. I am paying after all for those 15 mins. I want the agenda to be about my care.
Doomscrolling and getting angrier accomplishes nothing, but neither does further degrading the medical experience for patients, and putting your own desires (Biden must be re-elected) about their more relevant worries (what do I do for my child dying of diffuse midline glioma).
I find it sad how partisan politics is rotting medicine.
In my latest Sensible Medicine post, I noted that professors at Yale and Harvard dismissed Biden’s debate performance with the convenient propaganda that 'he just has a stutter’/ ‘he might be on cold medications.’
Obviously, for everyone who watched the debate, this was ludicrous, and I made the point that you would fail a medical student who was sent in to work up an increasingly forgetful elderly man, and walked out saying “I think it is just a stutter.” Particularly when that stutter is worse in recent years, led the special counsel to say the elderly man is forgetful, and the elderly man’s own employees say he functions best between 10 and 4… aka a classic stutter. Well, now we have an update!
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Sensible Medicine
Some doctors & professors claim Biden's debate performance was due to stuttering or cold medication.
Like millions of Americans, I watched the presidential debate this week. I discussed it privately with friends, but refrained from public comment. Why? For two reasons. One, I don't think I have anything particularly unique to say that wasn't said by dozens of others. Two, I think doctors should try to be less overtly partisan. After all, every doctor …
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5 days ago · 349 likes · 168 comments · Vinay Prasad
So why do we have academics trying to dismiss concerns about the President, when they would eagerly pounce and criticize had this been a Republican? Why write an entire op-ed speculating that it might be cold medication, when it is very likely that will be directly answered in the days to come?
I worry that academics are increasingly willing to do anything to show their partisan loyality in exchange for the hope that they will someday receive a presidential appointment. Remember how Ashish Jha would tweet pandering praise in favor of the disastrous Biden covid policy (forcibly masking 2 year olds with cloth masks at Headstart; pushing out Gruber and Krause at FDA to mandate vaccines that can’t halt transmission), See how he was described in this NYTimes article.
The only way to write an oped 2 mins after a decision is if you knew the decision in advance, and that does not mean ‘impartial and independent’.
There is a class of academic doctor who is auditioning for a role in the administration. They are kissing up on purpose. They try to support partisan politicians in the hopes they may get a promotion to a political role.
I don’t mind that doctors are seeking roles in CMS, or FDA or HHS. Doctors have always had ambition, and I support that. However, it crosses a line when a physician asks us to ignore reality, or says things that are medically wrong, in an effort to pursue their own career goals.
Ashish Jha came on TV and falsely emphasized the need for annual covid shots in young people who already had COVID. Rochelle Walensky has repeatedly lied about whether equipoise exists to run randomized trials of kids masking. Harlan Krumholz asked us to consider that Biden might be on cold medication, when he obviously was not. When your career ambition goes so far that you are willing to disregard the basic truth, then I think it is a problem.
As far as I know, these same doctors never once said publicly that the Biden administrations policy to force headstart kids— aged 2 to 4— to wear a cloth mask for hours on ends has no data and should be stopped. That policy didn’t help anyone and was unfairly burdensome to young children and even people who never graduated grade school could see that. Yet, many doctors refused to say the truth.
There is a reason why the public has lost trust in health professionals. Partisan politics is rotting out medicine. This is one example, but another one now appears on Vinay Prasad’s observations and thoughts (link below). What happens when a doctor tells their patients to vote, and also says to vote for Biden. Read more here..
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Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts
Should doctors encourage patients to vote?
Recently, I saw this tweet that I half agreed with. She is right! Doomscrolling and getting angry accomplishes nothing. It’s the rest I wonder about. The idea that doctors— particularly hematologist oncologists (in this case a pediatric heme onc doctor based in the purple state of Michigan)— should encourage patients to vote is a claim I have heard more…
Read more
2 days ago · 186 likes · 59 comments · Vinay Prasad
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