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Dr. K's avatar

Everything you said here (other than your [and Vinay's] opinions on best political solutions to society's ills...lol) is spot on and resonates strongly with this hematologist/microbiologist. In many ways you are too kind with what you write-- write some more and you will get closer to Vinay's increasingly incisive style. (Just please avoid bioplausibility...)

But the scariest part of this entire piece, and the part that is most worrisome, is the fact that you, like many other doctors, feel the need to post anonymously. Many/most physicians have fallen into the "go along to get along" category. Some of us have been railing about this since the flip-flop on masking ("The first lie was the worst lie") because it demonstrates that without leadership from people who WILL stand up and be counted, it is entirely likely that the worst possible things will happen because power politics overrules science and medicine every time unless you fight it tooth and nail.

As you also noted, the presumption that people are stupid ("We are the smart ones") that you so strongly brought out here is something that deserves way more focus. This impacts not only residency selection but life in general. The medical profession has lost a major share of its credibility (and public health ALL of its credibility) by lying to people and then expecting them to blindly follow. Some constituencies will: that 10% of spikeshotted children are primarily children of white, college educated, democrat women. They do it as another form of virtue signaling (reading your meeting notes, masks are essentially the MAGA hat of democrats as near as I can tell -- you can doff the hat just like the mask and they are equally protective against respiratory viruses including influenza, RSV and covid).

Maybe the ID community is so left wing there is no saving it, but I can tell you that if you got up and made a speech with this same content for most specialties you would find an unexpectedly strong positive reaction in the audience. Many physicians of my acquaintance are really starting to regret going along and are recognizing what it has done to their reputation and their ability to positively impact their patients' lives. They are looking for leaders (like Vinay and others) that tell it like it is and actually do present truth to power. I understand your decisions, but I hope for the good of all of us that your courage to do/say the right thing grows as time passes -- you have an insightful voice which should be better heard.

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Paul Fenyves's avatar

Thank you for the interesting essay. I get why you posted anonymously, but also suspect your ideas are shared by many colleagues -- there is a false consensus manufactured by some loud / prominent voices. As you alluded to in your essay, the dissenting opinion on Covid as proposed by Dr. Prasad could be approximated by: "Scandinavia did it better." The fact that this position has generated outrage should generate outrage.

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