Musings from a Retired Emergency Physician: Isn't Medical Misinformation Totalitarian?

MUSINGS FROM A RETIRED EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN

Isn’t Medical Misinformation Totalitarian?

By Wayne Barry, MD, FACEP

Former FCEP Board Member

For those of you who have been reading my columns since the early 2000’s, I have turned 74 and do not know how many of these essays I have left in me. For my birthday, I received a new knee and a new job. I slid away from the hospice company I had been contentedly working for a little over 10 years now and joined a somewhat newer and slimmer version in another hospice company. I also underwent my second total knee arthroplasty in the past two and a half years. The good news is that God only gave me two knees to completely wear out. Shout out to Dr. Mark Hollmann of Florida Orthopedics and his trusty sidekick Henry Samsoe, PA-C, for doing an excellent job on both knee replacements. My convalescence and rehab from the second surgery exceeded the first in speed and pain recovery. Going from one relatively stress-free medical job to another in the midst of total knee replacement rehabilitation has been a little more stressful than I bargained for, but I am finding my groove with the new hospice company and enjoying the new faces and colleagues. It seems there are plenty of hospice patients to go around!

I want to take this opportunity to address the embarrassing situation in our state where we are the only state so far to declare that Covid vaccinations are not recommended for healthy children. This would seem to fly in the face of most of the valuable principles and knowledge we have gained from public health officials and scientists as a result of battling a viral pandemic that has killed over 6 million people on our planet. First of all, if I were a Florida parent, I would be terribly confused about whether to vaccinate my children (and I do have two teenage grandchildren whose parents are just that)! Of the 28 M or so U.S. children between the ages of 5-11, there have been approximately 2 million cases of Covid-19 as of last October. Some of these children have become very sick with about 8,300 cases requiring hospitalization, and about 100 children have died in this country from Covid as of last October. Serious Covid illness complications like multisystem inflammatory syndrome have occurred, and children with serious underlying medical conditions are more at-risk for severe illness from Covid. Covid now ranks as one of the top 10 causes of death in children 5-11 years old.

The Covid vaccines have been proven safe for children 5-11 years old and older. Serious health events after Covid-19 vaccination in children are rare. Myocarditis has been reported in a few children 12-17 of age who received the vaccine. In these cases, the myocarditis was mild and resolved without aggressive treatment or residual effects. The incidence of myocarditis in vaccinated children was a little less than that in the general population of children of that age group. No cases of myocarditis appeared in Covid vaccinated children aged 5-11. Severe anaphylactic allergic reactions in children are very rare. Children DO NOT get Covid-19 from Covid-19 injections. There are no fertility problems, and finally, children who are vaccinated against Covid-19 prevent the spread of Covid to other family members and their friends at school. These facts and other pertinent Covid-19 information can be found on CDC.gov.

Now let’s return to Florida, where Surgeon General Dr. Ladapo has declared that the Florida Department of Health, which he directs, does not recommend Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children. This recommendation is not in any way in concert with the information I discussed above, which comes directly from the CDC. Most of us are familiar with Dr. Ladapo’s credentials. He is a cardiologist who came from a medical school in Southern California and has no demonstrable expertise in public health. He refuses to divulge whether he has been vaccinated against Covid-19, which is a requirement for membership on the faculty of the UF School of Medicine to which he was automatically appointed by virtue of being appointed Surgeon General of the State of Florida. He refuses to follow the CDC recommendations on mask wearing, and infamously was thrown out of a state senator’s office with whom he was assigned to curry favor for his appointment because she insisted he wear a mask in deference to her battle with cancer.

Dr. Ladapo was appointed to his position by the current Governor Ron DeSantis, and in this capacity, his job is to protect the health and safety of all of Florida’s residents. By denying scientific, evidence-based medicine related to Covid pandemic fighting, recommendations, and enforcement of mitigation procedures to protect as many Floridians from the virus as possible, the Governor and Dr. Ladapo seem to be pursuing a political agenda that appeals to Gov. DeSantis’ base for re-election rather than to protect the health and safety of Floridians. An example of the weaponization of this medical misinformation occurred recently when Gov. DeSantis humiliated a bunch of high school students and their parents at an awards assembly. About a dozen students appeared on the stage, all wearing masks. Perhaps their parents had discussed with them that wearing a mask during a viral pandemic was a good idea because scientific evidence shows that chances of spreading the virus to others were reduced. Gov. DeSantis rammed a state law through the Florida Legislature recently, stating that it was illegal

for anyone other than parents to tell their children to wear face masks. In any event, Gov. DeSantis ridiculed the masked students and ordered them to remove their masks because he thought it was not necessary, and he further accused them of participating in “Covid theater.” The video clip went viral. The Governor has shown similar viciousness in positions, resulting in new state legislation bashing the expansion of voting rights, exhibiting antagonism towards LGBTQ rights and teaching or training in diversity issues, and denying the acknowledgment of certain dark chapters in U.S. history.

Speaking of weaponizing misinformation with regards to Putin’s war against Ukraine, I recently heard an interview with a woman who holds office in the Russian Duma. She claimed that President Putin is protecting Russia from the Nazified and corrupt Ukraine who are in fact the military aggressors in the current conflict. When the reporter reminded her that the current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish, her reply was Nazis are not restricted to specific religions, ethnicity or nationalities. Finally when she was shown pictures of the results of Russian bombing of multiple civilian sites inside Ukraine, she did not believe the pictures were real or genuine, and she believed the Russians were on the defensive because this is what she is told by President Putin.

My intention is not to disrespect the duly elected highest official in the state of Florida, but I did want to point out some of the similarities between the belief in anti-science misinformation and the propaganda associated with the world’s most fearsome and violent totalitarian state. You can be the judge as to whether I am off base with my concerns. ■

50 YEARS, 50 VOICES

a digital project honoring FCEP & emergency medicine

FCEP’s 50th Anniversary Tribute to Emergency Medicine

Featuring: Rajiv Bahl, MD, MBA, MS; Ashley BoothNorse, MD, FACEP; Daniel Brennan, MD, FACEP; Elizabeth Calhoun, MD; Damian Caraballo, MD, FACEP; Jordan Celeste, MD, FACEP; Bill Davison, MD, FACEP; Arthur Diskin, MD, FACEP; Jay Edelberg, MD, FACEP; Caral Edelberg, CPC, CCS-P; Jay Falk, MD, FACEP; Kelly GrayEurom, MD, MMM, FACEP; Erich Heine, DO; Phyllis Hendry, MD, FACEP; Saundra Jackson, MD, FACEP; Steven Kailes, MD, FACEP; Wayne Lee, MD, FACEP; Michael Lozano, MD, FACEP; Kristin McCabe-Kline, MD, FACEP; Ernest Page, MD, FACEP; David Orban, MD, FACEP; Russ Radtke, MD, FACEP; John Stimler, DO, FACEP; Josef Thundiyil, MD, MPH, FACEP; Chrissy Van Dillen, MD, FACEP, FAEMS; David Vukich, MD, FACEP; Frederic Wurtzel, MD, FACEP

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