Mayo clinic punishes Mike Joyner for saying that transgendered athletes have an advantage due to testosterone while building a new 5 billion dollar campus

The love of money has destroyed the love of knowledge

I want to juxtapose three stories that appear recently. Mike Joyner is suing Mayo for violating his Academic Freedom. Mayo Clinic is building a 5 billion dollar, glamorous new campus, and an essay in the New York Times laments the predatory nature of non-profit hospitals, which are behaving like cruel, capital maximizing machines. How do these 3 things relate?

Mike Joyner suing Mayo Clinic

First, Mike Joyner, an anesthesiologist at Mayo who studies exercise physiology was quoted about fairness of transgendered athletes participating in sports. His quotes suggest he thinks it is unfair for a man who went through puberty (with exposure to testosterone) to compete with biological women, even if that individual’s testosterone levels later drop.

Because of these comments, and his particular choice of words, he was suspended and punished by Mayo clinic— a topic I discuss in a prior post. Check it out.

Now, Mike is back and suing Mayo clinic for violating Academic Freedom with a scathing press release. Specifically it details actions by the CEO Gianrico Farrugia, which are chilling. Mayo wanted Mike to shut up to protect its brand.

Mayo Clinic builds new spaceship campus

Next up is a news story— which appears like press release churnalism about Mayo growing its campus

And the same Mayo CEO is back

Its all glitz and glamor at Mayo 2.0. I doubt the new office plans include Mike’s office.

Non Profit Hospitals are Predatory

Finally, a great guest op ed appears on NyTimes.

Here is what Amol writes about these hospitals:

“Accordingly, they have prioritized protecting their finances, focusing on scale and market power. Unfortunately, these actions too often come at the expense of their mission to serve their communities. This has meant less charity care for patients who cannot afford expensive surgeries or emergency room visits and higher prices for those who can.”

Putting it together

Putting these 3 themes together, I think the true, failing picture of America’s academy is revealed. We have turned the few entities that are meant to promote intellectual diversity— universities and academic medical centers— into greedy, sniveling corporate sell outs.

They care more about building a 5 billion dollar campus than allowing their faculty to engage in vital, important debates about controversial issues. But the latter is what the academy alone can do. The former can be done by ten million other sellout corporations.

Non-profit hospitals are engaged in the most ruthless capitalist behavior of our time. Their behavior makes the plot of There Will Be Blood look tame. They are relentlessly expanding the corporate empire and building C suite glass offices. Along the way, they keep adding training modules for practicing doctors and preventing researchers from talking about the role of testosterone in sports.

Non profit hospitals should have their tax status revoked. They have failed the communities they are meant to protect and are outdoing themselves to provide unproven, non evidence based care to attract the richest patients. They want new glass buildings so the wealthy Global elite have a nice place to stay when they visit for their ‘executive physical.’

Having faculty like Mike Joyner speak out on controversial issues is a liability. Pursuit of truth— e.g. criticizing a corporation’s flawed clinical trials— is a liability when you need that company to recruit at your center.

Academic medical centers and universities are undergoing a gut renovation. We may not see it yet, but the future is bleak. Censorship and pushing out ideas that do not serve corporate interests will grow, and a few years from now, Mayo will promote their new 10 billion dollar expansion— this time with a monorail, and Mike Joyner will be retired.