Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the way many physicians have become politicized:
There has always been an element in the medical profession that has been given to politics, but in recent years it has become more common and more aggressive.
It would be harder to find better proof of physician politics than the letter signed by over 1,200 health officials in the spring of 2020. With Covid-19 raging, and lockdowns everywhere, these doctors reacted more like left-wing activists than professionals.
The good doctors threw caution to the wind, suspending their support for social distancing, all because they vigorously endorsed the cause of “social justice.” To be specific, many protests were launched following a few controversial incidents of police interactions with black men. That some of the protests turned into a riot—killing and injuring innocent persons, many of whom were cops—did not seem to matter.
The signatories were outraged by the “emerging narratives that seemed to malign demonstrations as risky for the public health because of Covid-19.” That was their number-one concern—bad mouthing the protesters—not the spread of Covid. They added that their goal was “to present a narrative that prioritizes opposition to racism as vital to public health, including the epidemic response.” Not only that, these protests—not all protests—were deemed “vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States.”
This backdrop helps us to understand why so many in the medical profession have said very little about the legalization of marijuana. It comes down to politics. Some issues galvanize them; others do not. To cite another example, consider their strong support for sex-reassignment surgery. Physician politics has never been more apparent.
Last week, the Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released the findings of its annual survey and found that over 16 percent of the population, more than 46 million people, suffer from substance abuse disorder. Almost all of them did not receive any treatment.
Last month, CFAH, a health advisory organization, issued a report on the legal status of marijuana in the states. The drug is fully legal in 21 states and the District of Columbia; it is legal in another 23 states, but with restrictions; it is illegal in 6 states.
The American Medical Association (AMA) is opposed to marijuana legalization, but not in a vigorous way. In fact, the last statement it issued on this subject was to call for expunging prior marijuana arrest records, a decision that smacks of politics, not science.
On the issue of state restrictions on sex-reassignment surgery, the AMA is quite vocal, making it clear that such legislation “represents a dangerous governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine,” insisting that “trans and non-binary identities are normal variations of human identity and expression” (my emphasis).
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists several health concerns with marijuana use, but stays away from commenting on the wisdom of legalizing the drug.
When it comes to gender identity, the CDC offers a full-throated endorsement, imploring health providers to “create welcoming environments that facilitates disclosure of gender identity and sexual orientation.” Furthermore, clinics should work to “improve sexual health for transgender and gender nonbinary persons.”
Our leading medical guru, Dr. Fauci, has not commented on the legalization of marijuana, even though he has spent the past three years warning us about respiratory illnesses.
Interestingly, Anthony “Double Mask” Fauci, in his role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has come under considerable criticism for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance attempts to turn monkeys transgender.
To be specific, he has used public monies to inject male monkeys with feminizing hormone therapy. His interest in sex is longstanding, beginning with AIDS in the 1980s. Moreover, at the height of the pandemic, “Double Mask” could not bring himself to tell gay men not to have sex with anonymous men, saying only that it is risky. Apparently, this was not as risky as going to church during the Covid outbreak, which is why church doors were shut.
Most doctors and those who work in the medical profession are good men and women who have served the public well. But there are more than a few—especially in elite positions—who have shown themselves to be charlatans, or worse. Politics has no more legitimate role to play in medicine than it does in sports.
