Doctoring and Activism

I got myself into a bit of tussle on Twitter today. In a provocative piece on the newsletter Persuasion, Dr. Sally Satel argued for caution in the matter of doctors becoming political activists. I retweeted it below: Doctors excel at treating people with disease. That is our calling. Political activism is fine, but it ought be done only as private citizens. I agree with Dr. Satel > https://t.co/xGS2P9a8lq(Kudos to @Yascha_Mounk for starting Persuasion) pic.twitter.com/aW83MvwJnz— John Mandrola, MD (@drjohnm) August 23, 2020 Most of the replies express extreme disagreement. One question stood out as worthy of a longer reply than Twitter allows. I can’t really seem to mend your blog post from June 7th about the danger of silencing public discourse with this tweet. Genuinely curious about where your views are on this issue so could you help with a little bit of clarity? pic.twitter.com/bl5CWYlGTe— Cristina Cabrera (@lttl2316) August 23, 2020 And then this: It seems like you understand the need for this conversation from your introduction about your concerns about racism and representation in medical education, so with the previous tweet in mind, wouldn’t open discourse in the medical community foster debate and solutions?— Cristina Cabrera (@lttl2316) August 23, 2020 Thank you CC for the calm inquiry. My answer goes something like this: Dr. Satel and I are both against racism. But let’s say we objected to bein...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs