Smokers of the world unite! It’s strange for a physician to be sympathizing with the tobacco companies, purveyors of the opium of the people. Am I a stealth nicotine addict, an apologist for Big Tobacco who supplies me with my daily fix? This scurrilous allegation can be vaporized in a one-question quiz. Identify which two of the three individuals listed below are cigarette smokers. John Boehner, newly elected Speaker of the House , 3rd in line to the presidency Barack Obama, Commander-in-Chief and leader of the free world Michael Kirsch, Hemorrhoid examiner I’ve never smoked and I detest the habit. It kills people and separates lower income Americans from money that could likely be devoted to more worthwhile endeavors. I remember caring for folks with end stage emphysema as a medical resident and thinking that this disease was worse than cancer. I haven’t changed my mind. Yet, I have felt for years that Big Tobacco is demonized by the press and the government as Big Scapegoa
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.