OPINION:
The American Medical Association, like institutions of higher learning, corporations and the news media, has adopted “woke” speech and policies — and the results, just as they were with the other groups, are embarrassing.
Who remembers when the AMA’s journal JAMA contained breaking scientific research and news for doctors to apply in their practice? Today, the weekly journal overflows with first-person victim narratives such as “My patient was mean to me,” “My hair’s falling out” and “I never feel like I fit” in sections called “Viewpoints” and “Piece of My Mind.” And that’s before we get to poetry — doctors write poetry, too!
In addition to the weepy diary excerpts that now dot the journal, the AMA has adopted shocking “woke” gender policies that some may have missed. Delegates at its Special Meeting in June 2021 advocated “the removal of sex as a legal designation on the public portion of the birth certificate.”
Why? Because gender information “perpetuates a view that sex designation is permanent and fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity,” said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, the AMA board chair-elect at the time.
Today, the anyone-can-be-any-gender recommendations stand. Is that why this passage appeared in the Nov. 12 issue of JAMA in an article about doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, known as doxy PEP? “This pill can help prevent contracting diseases like syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea.” Doxy PEP is recommended for “those assigned male sex at birth, including cisgender men and transgender women,” the JAMA story read.
Since when is “cisgender,” nee “normal,” a medical term?
The weekly New England Journal of Medicine has also adopted “wokeisms.” Its Nov. 14 issue ran an article highlighting problems with “access to menstrual products for people experiencing homelessness.” Did the writers mean homeless women? Or do they believe that “people” get menstrual periods, get pregnant and nurse?
JAMA editor in chief canceled
It has been over three years since the resignation of Dr. Howard Bauchner, JAMA’s then-editor in chief, following a podcast and tweet in which Dr. Edward Livingston, then-JAMA deputy editor, said, “Structural racism is an unfortunate term. Personally, I think taking racism out of the conversation will help. Many of us are offended by the concept that we are racist” — remarks that were considered racist.
Dr. Bauchner was placed on administrative leave; he subsequently resigned.
In a statement, Dr. Bauchner said he was “profoundly disappointed in myself for the lapses that led to the publishing of the tweet and podcast. Although I did not write or even see the tweet or create the podcast, as editor-in-chief, I am ultimately responsible for them.” He added he has “always supported the AMA’s commitment to dismantling structural racism in the institutions of American medicine, as evident by numerous publications in JAMA on this issue and related subjects, and look forward to personally contributing to that work going forward.”
But doctors commenting on the MedPage Today website did not buy the cancellation and apologies: “Another one falls to wokism on steroids. If you say anything nowadays that could remotely offend anyone, you run the chance of getting crucified,” one doctor wrote.
“Another example of a system gone amok and eating its own children. Reminds me of the French Revolution, absent the guillotine … a good man was forced out of a lifetime of good works, as [many] have been and will be under this new system,” wrote another.
“This witch-hunting garbage is one of the main reasons that I dropped AMA membership years ago,” wrote a third.
As the new, “woke” JAMA becomes more shameless, it is doubtful that the outspoken doctors will submit their research — or diary excerpts.
• Martha Rosenberg is a nationally recognized medical reporter. Her work appears in the British Medical Journal, Consumer Reports, Public Citizen, the Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and other top outlets. She has written more than 1,000 scientific and nonscientific papers.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.