MD Whistleblower

Over the course of this pandemic, we have learned a lot about the country, our leaders and ourselves – and not all of it has been good.  One thing we have learned is that anything can be politicized.  Will anyone be shocked, for example, if a protest movement develops demanding that that Mother’s Day either be abolished or renamed?   Overall, Governor Mike DeWine has provided sober guidance and directives here in Ohio.  I think that his performance during the pandemic will be an important reason why he will be reelected in 2022.  Interestingly, although he is a bonafide conservative, he will face primary threats from the right in a state that Trump handily won in the past 2 presidential elections.  As we all have learned in November 2016, anything can happen. But, DeWine, like every other political leader considered the political impact of public health decisions. Governor DeWine Understands the Pandemic and Politics. In April 2020, he issued a m...

 We have all witnessed the debacle from our clumsy and precipitous withdrawal of our military from Afghanistan.  The humanitarian and moral disaster was as astonishing as it was avoidable.  Not only do our allies and our adversaries correctly point out our incompetence, but so do members of the the president’s own political party and administration.  Perhaps, this is an issue that might unite the Democrats and the GOP.  Indeed, the record contradicts President Biden’s claim that no military experts warned him that his plan risked chaos and catastrophe.   All of us certainly heard the president reassure us only weeks ago that the Taliban were unlikely to prevail in the short term and there would certainly not be a ‘Saigon moment’, recalling an iconic and humiliating scene from 1975. The president also claimed that he was handcuffed to withdraw troops as he needed to honor the prior agreement between the Taliban and the former administration.   This ...

 There isn’t a person, a pet or a plant in this country who is not aware of COVID-19.  With regret, but not surprisingly, the pandemic has struck back as it successfully targets the unvaccinated community.  We have to hope that this outbreak will be the last gasp of the pandemic and not that of many ailing Americans. The nation has been deluged with information, misinformation and disinformation.   We confront facts and alternative facts.   Even legitimate public health experts are not consistently singing from the same hymnal. So, I thought this was an apt opportunity to test your knowledge on the novel coronavirus with ten True or False questions – no multiple choice or essay.   What could be easier?   And there is no penalty for guessing.   Answers appear at the foot of this post.   Good luck.   Let the games begin. How Much Do You Know?   The Delta variant is so named since this strain was brought in from overseas by ...

Last week I conjectured that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) obfuscated when they recently recommended that vaccinated individuals resume indoor masking under certain circumstances.  My speculation was that the policy was justified but that the CDC was not forthcoming in explaining the rationale for the policy revision. The revised re-masking recommendation, as with every other aspect in this pandemic, has only further polarized a nation that seems to be trying very hard not to heal itself literally and politically.   I predict that our collective political affliction will long outlast the coronavirus plague.   I routinely ask patients if they have received the COVID-19 vaccine.   Recently, a patient replied that has not received one.   I asked what his concerns were and he firmly responded that he would never get vaccinated against the coronavirus.   Not much space for dialogue here. The CDC and public health experts admit that ...

Depending upon your politics, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has either shamelessly reversed course or simply issued a new guideline in response to new medical evidence. Indeed, many are hostile to the agency’s recent 'new & improved' recommendation that those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 mask up when indoors in regions where the Delta variant is highly prevalent. The dissenters point out that this directly contradicts very recent CDC and public health expert advice that clearly stated that those vaccinated could be safely liberated from their face masks.  In fact, this demasking was offered as a direct incentive to those who remained hesitant to roll up their sleeves.  The CDC and its supporters maintain that their new policy on masking the vaccinated is based on a sound review of recent data, which they tarried in releasing.  I am a rationalist who practices gastroenterology guided by medical evidence.   Despite some missteps...

 I think we’re headed in that direction.  There are various angles and positions to consider.  But, as in so many disputes, it’s not a matter of right and wrong but an issue of which side has the better argument. When a judge rules for one party in a dispute, this does not mean that the other side had no legitimate position.  If means that the judge concluded that an analysis of the facts and the law tilted toward one side. We must acknowledge that an individual has a right not to be forced to accept a vaccine or any medical treatment.   The doctrines of informed consent and patient autonomy are bedrock pillars in American medical care.   If, for example, I recommend a colonoscopy to a patient with symptoms highly suggestive of a serious colon condition, the patient is free to decline my advice.   While I may feel strongly that this decision – referred to as informed refusal – is unwise, no medical practitioner or ethicist would argue that I sho...

Readers of this blog, and those with whom I have shared my philosophy of medical practice, know that I am a conservative practitioner.   I rail against overdiagnosis and overtreatment.  Less medicine results in more healing and protection.  In an example, I have explained previously why I advise patients not to undergo total body scan s , despite the lure that they offer a cancerophobic public.  I’ve never undergone a CXR in my life.   I’ve never entered medicine’s Tunnel of Adventure, also known as a CAT scan.  My fear would be that the scan would show various internal imperfections of no meaning that would generate anxiety, expense and a cascade of medical tests to follow up on the ‘abnormalities’.  Any real patient reading this who has been around the block once or twice, will validate my scanophobia.   Not a week goes by in my practice, that I am not facing a worried patient who was found to have some trivial finding on a ...