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medstudent's avatar

Sensible. Just like any profession, doctors are not special here, you can be political as a person but not when acting in a professional capacity. Then you must be apolitical and focus on your job. If summoned by Congress to testify, stay in your lane. Doctors went berserk in 2020 and are WAY out of line. The arrogance of them thinking they know better is astounding

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Steve Cheung's avatar

Absolutely agree with this. For any physician, they should feel free to campaign upon any political cause as floats their boat…as a private citizen. They should, however, have the good sense, humility, and some awareness of the Dunning Kruger effect, to realize that their “MD” confers upon them absolutely the square root of bupkis insofar as expertise or standing in a politics or policy discussion, which is where the rubber meets road on any topic that requires “activism” of any sort. The only exception I would grant to this, is if that physician also happens to be a public health expert, or politician. But even in those cases, it would be their other “hat”, and not really their “md”, that provides them professional standing in any such policy discussion.

And a caveat I would hold is in a scientific discussion of the evidence for or against any policy position. I think an MD does have the unique critical appraisal skills to evaluate such supporting evidence. So if an MD wants to question the scientific basis of a policy as an MD, I think that can at times be justified, as long as they are doing so regarding the science, at a level beyond that of a lay person.

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