In an era where medicine is plagued by burnout and moral injury, I’m inspired to know and support the women of JOWMA. To us, medicine is a true calling.
I appreciate your noting that loss of autonomy is a big problem for doctors today. I think that this is a big problem for all professionals. There is a war on the professional class and we are not winning. I also agree that there is never a good time to have a baby. I do not understand these young people who think you can plan a baby. They believe they can plan life. My daughter was an unplanned miracle baby, and the best part of my life.
I was at The Free Press event last night, the debate on Has the Sexual Revolution Failed? I did not hear enough strong argumentos for either side (final votes on who won were 49 for and 51 against the question), see by yourself, the recording will be made public soon.
It was RFK's challenge to infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez that resulted in Hotez being stalked at his home by anti-vaxxers, and receiving threatening emails from them. To me, that is harassment. RFK has been refuted by scientists with evidence and logic, but that is not harassment. He has also had posts removed from social media for violating their standards, but that is not harassment. As fas as I could tell from a quick Google search, RFK has made no claims of harassment by anybody other than his late wife. But if you have a link that says otherwise, feel free to share it.
Peter Hotez is a shill for the pharma- FDA- CDC conglomerate. RFKjr did challenge Hotez to an open debate ( which Hotez declined) but he never even subtly encouraged stalking. Read Vijay Prasad’s review of RFKs positions. You are accepting the captured media and industries misrepresentations of what RFK jr actually says. They are masterful at smearing him.
I never said that RFK "encouraged stalking." I was responding to someone who said the reason the author of the book, "Turtles All the Way Down" wrote it as Anonymous rather than using their own name was due to attacks by pro-vaccine folks. From what I've observed, it's the anti-vaxx people who engage in the more serious threats that Hotez received, but in any case, once the stalking and threats received a great deal of publicity, it was incumbent on both Rogan and RFK to publicly tell people to stop doing that, and as far as I can tell, they did not do so. I actually posted Prasad's review of RFK's position and promoted it, so of course I know what he said. He pointed out when RFK was either "right," or at least made reasonable requests. He also pointed out where RFK was wrong because, as you must know, Prasad is generally pro-vaccine. Prasad is credible because he relies on data rather than politics for his recommendations, so his positions tend to be nuanced. For example, he said the following in that article: "When it comes to vaccines, I often feel Kennedy sees only harms and never sees benefits. This is dangerous. Vaccines are one of the great medical innovations in human history, one that has saved countless lives. This is not to say all vaccines are the same as far as safety and risk are concerned. But far too often, Kennedy paints with a broad brush, and broadly disparages all vaccines. More than that, he makes unfounded leaps of logic to blame vaccines for a variety of ills." For anybody who wants to listen to an in-depth discussion on what he said about RFK, I highly recommend Prasad's interview with Briahna Joy Gray (link#1 below). As far as the media misrepresenting Kennedy (I assume you mean about vaccines more than other topics), I find it difficult to even know exactly where he stands on vaccines. On the one hand, he has said, "I have never been anti-vaxx. I have never told the public to avoid vaccination." But he also said, "“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated.” (link #2). He gives me the impression of a typical politician trying to have it both ways. He also still promotes the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. BTW, as someone who works with kids with autism, I too, wondered whether there might be a link between the two, until investigative reporter Brian Deer discovered that the doctor who did the original study making those claims made up the data for money. (link #3). Now we have lots of studies to demonstrate there is no link (as Vinay discussed in the video). Not to mention, autism has always been around, while vaccines have not.
Reading this reminded me of the saying, "If you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it." Even more so, a busy woman! :) Thanks for all you do. Also thanks for mentioning vaccines. I am surprised that there are so many anti-vaccine folks who subscribe to this Substack. Every doctor here promotes evidence based medicine, and thus, every doctor here is pro-vaccine. Even Vinay Prasad, who speaks out often against Big Pharma, and against some of the CDC guidance on the issue, is still overall pro-vaccine. I think these folks need to migrate over to Maryanne Demasi's Substack!
Yes, it seems to me that there is a confusion about vaccines. The problem is not vaccines per se, but bad medicine and bad science. Check “Rigor mortis” by Richard Harris, or “Pandora’s Lab” by Offit
I agree. The Harris book is in the same vein as "Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer," by Vinay Prasad. I also really like and trust Paul Offit. Like Prasad, he is overall pro-vaccine, but will tell you honestly when you are in a demographic for whom the vaccine is unnecessary or not recommended. I'm very glad he is on the FDA vaccine advisory committee. Both doctors stick to data for their recommendations, not politics. As a result, they tend to aggravate both the right and the left, so you know they're doing something right! :) Thanks for the recommendations.
What an inspiration and example you are. I love that you talk about marrying and starting a family while still in school. With the coming population implosion we need to educate, encourage and support this very pathway. Congratulations on creating a group of likeminded women.
Incredible journey and accomplishments! I also hope that she learns about the deception of all vaccines by reading Turtles All The Way Down, written by Israeli MDs.
Given her knowledge, I think she knows that book is false, as she has the training to see all the flaws in their data and its interpretation (link below). A big red flag is that the author didn't have the courage to stand by what they said, since it's written by "Anonymous." Thus, they can completely escape accountability for all their falsehoods. And no, they didn't do it to escape harassment, as it's the doctors who promote vaccines who get harassed. Just ask Dr. Peter Hotez. I've never heard of any pro-vaccine person harassing an anti-vaxxer, so there is no excuse for writing it anonymously. Legitimate medical books are not written anonymously.
5 authors! And I have known about the dangers and deception with the vaccines for 30 years now. My 4th Pediatrician (I left 3 other practices of clueless MDs poisoning babies and children) had the courage to tell me the truth! He had 4 children of his own. He also educated me on the immune system of babies/children I never looked back. He said he could tell what kind of mother I was, but that if I told anyone, he could lose his medical license. I am indebted to him to this day.
Pro-vaccine folks harass vaccine literate people constantly. What world are you living in? Peter Hotez is a criminal and charlatan! His own child has Autism. Wake up and smell the BS!!
Prevention is a tough sell. You can't see all the illness and death that DIDN'T happen. When children were being paralyzed and dying from the poliomyelitis virus, parents were desperate to get their kids vaccinated. Now nobody worries about "the polio" anymore.
Children were being paralyzed by the DDT they were spraying on crops and on the children! Read up on the true causes of Polio in the book Dissolving Illusions.
Yes, I think the CDC, lockdowns, and mandates have destroyed so much trust, people will have to stop using the pro vaccine label. I think they will have to call themselves pro evidence based medicine because that label has come to mean people who force medical interventions with neutral-to-negative benefit ratios with school and colleges requirements.
Doctors don't call themselves pro intubation or pro electroshock therapy, do they? These are all just tools, and a single tool isn't fit for every job, no matter what the pro-hammer lobby says.
I agree with most of your comment with the exception of the “ pro electroshock therapy” doctors. There is an important debate raging about not only the use of ect but it’s increasing use amongst young teenagers and expanding its use for more and more “ diagnostic labels” . Ect is as barbaric as lobotomies and needs to be banned until and unless well designed randomized controlled trials are done with follow up for 2 to 5 yrs post the last ect. There are only a few poorly designed trials from the 1970 s that don t follow the groups beyond 6 months. Ect has never been through FDA approval process but was “ grandfathered “ in decades ago. Ect has never been shown to be either safe or effective. Ect is however hugely profitable for psychiatrists,anesthesiologists, and the facilities that offer it. Psych patients who are permanently damaged by ect have no voice as all their reports of symptoms are uniformly blamed”on their underlying diagnosis “. Because they are already labeled as “ crazy “ they have no credibility and malpractice lawyers refuse to take their cases.
As this is an article authored by a frum doctor , I will add that I was contacted by a frum person asking if I would agree to talk to a Satmat chossid about ect,as he wanted to have his wife undergo a series of ect . She was post partum her second child. I asked about her symptoms, “ was she truly depressed and asking for help, or did she not want to be pressured into another pregnancy right away ? Or did she no longer want to wear her “ sheitel”(wig) ? It was the latter 2. Her husband wanted to use psychiatry and ect to control the poor young woman.
In summary, ECT has no basis in science. It causes permanent and varied brain dysfunction( severe dense retrograde amnesia that is permanent ,
loss of ability to experience human emotions( no joy, no sadness, no empathy, no ambition, no desire, no love in people who experienced these vital human emotions prior to ect so they are acutely aware of what was erased), as well as other more subtle cognitive problems. Psychiatry has become the wild Wild West. There is no reporting on ect, no standard parameters for amp mount of current used, variable lead placement( uni vs bilateral ) . There is zero patient follow up. It is a true scandal and it’s use is growing.
Thank you for writing this, Disa🙏🏼🙏🏼 My mother was given ECT when her father, an Orthopedic Surgeon, was killed by medical error. They gave him the wrong blood type in a transfusion during surgery. She became incapable of mothering my 3 siblings and I, the youngest. This created a great deal of trauma for my siblings and I.
I appreciate your noting that loss of autonomy is a big problem for doctors today. I think that this is a big problem for all professionals. There is a war on the professional class and we are not winning. I also agree that there is never a good time to have a baby. I do not understand these young people who think you can plan a baby. They believe they can plan life. My daughter was an unplanned miracle baby, and the best part of my life.
WOW! Thank you.
Thanks for sharing your story Miriam. So much to admire and respect about your journey.
I would however advise every young woman and man to strongly reject your motto:
"It's never a good time to have a baby, so don’t wait for the sole purpose of career planning."
Choicefulness and planning are on balance a great investment in our own health and happiness.
Cheers!
I also think you missed the whole point
I was at The Free Press event last night, the debate on Has the Sexual Revolution Failed? I did not hear enough strong argumentos for either side (final votes on who won were 49 for and 51 against the question), see by yourself, the recording will be made public soon.
I think you missed the whole point.
It was RFK's challenge to infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez that resulted in Hotez being stalked at his home by anti-vaxxers, and receiving threatening emails from them. To me, that is harassment. RFK has been refuted by scientists with evidence and logic, but that is not harassment. He has also had posts removed from social media for violating their standards, but that is not harassment. As fas as I could tell from a quick Google search, RFK has made no claims of harassment by anybody other than his late wife. But if you have a link that says otherwise, feel free to share it.
Peter Hotez is a shill for the pharma- FDA- CDC conglomerate. RFKjr did challenge Hotez to an open debate ( which Hotez declined) but he never even subtly encouraged stalking. Read Vijay Prasad’s review of RFKs positions. You are accepting the captured media and industries misrepresentations of what RFK jr actually says. They are masterful at smearing him.
I never said that RFK "encouraged stalking." I was responding to someone who said the reason the author of the book, "Turtles All the Way Down" wrote it as Anonymous rather than using their own name was due to attacks by pro-vaccine folks. From what I've observed, it's the anti-vaxx people who engage in the more serious threats that Hotez received, but in any case, once the stalking and threats received a great deal of publicity, it was incumbent on both Rogan and RFK to publicly tell people to stop doing that, and as far as I can tell, they did not do so. I actually posted Prasad's review of RFK's position and promoted it, so of course I know what he said. He pointed out when RFK was either "right," or at least made reasonable requests. He also pointed out where RFK was wrong because, as you must know, Prasad is generally pro-vaccine. Prasad is credible because he relies on data rather than politics for his recommendations, so his positions tend to be nuanced. For example, he said the following in that article: "When it comes to vaccines, I often feel Kennedy sees only harms and never sees benefits. This is dangerous. Vaccines are one of the great medical innovations in human history, one that has saved countless lives. This is not to say all vaccines are the same as far as safety and risk are concerned. But far too often, Kennedy paints with a broad brush, and broadly disparages all vaccines. More than that, he makes unfounded leaps of logic to blame vaccines for a variety of ills." For anybody who wants to listen to an in-depth discussion on what he said about RFK, I highly recommend Prasad's interview with Briahna Joy Gray (link#1 below). As far as the media misrepresenting Kennedy (I assume you mean about vaccines more than other topics), I find it difficult to even know exactly where he stands on vaccines. On the one hand, he has said, "I have never been anti-vaxx. I have never told the public to avoid vaccination." But he also said, "“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated.” (link #2). He gives me the impression of a typical politician trying to have it both ways. He also still promotes the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. BTW, as someone who works with kids with autism, I too, wondered whether there might be a link between the two, until investigative reporter Brian Deer discovered that the doctor who did the original study making those claims made up the data for money. (link #3). Now we have lots of studies to demonstrate there is no link (as Vinay discussed in the video). Not to mention, autism has always been around, while vaccines have not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSvWIJaJOb0
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rfk-jr-hes-anti-vaccine-record-shows-opposite-101863102
https://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-summary.htm
Reading this reminded me of the saying, "If you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it." Even more so, a busy woman! :) Thanks for all you do. Also thanks for mentioning vaccines. I am surprised that there are so many anti-vaccine folks who subscribe to this Substack. Every doctor here promotes evidence based medicine, and thus, every doctor here is pro-vaccine. Even Vinay Prasad, who speaks out often against Big Pharma, and against some of the CDC guidance on the issue, is still overall pro-vaccine. I think these folks need to migrate over to Maryanne Demasi's Substack!
Yes, it seems to me that there is a confusion about vaccines. The problem is not vaccines per se, but bad medicine and bad science. Check “Rigor mortis” by Richard Harris, or “Pandora’s Lab” by Offit
I agree. The Harris book is in the same vein as "Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer," by Vinay Prasad. I also really like and trust Paul Offit. Like Prasad, he is overall pro-vaccine, but will tell you honestly when you are in a demographic for whom the vaccine is unnecessary or not recommended. I'm very glad he is on the FDA vaccine advisory committee. Both doctors stick to data for their recommendations, not politics. As a result, they tend to aggravate both the right and the left, so you know they're doing something right! :) Thanks for the recommendations.
What an inspiration and example you are. I love that you talk about marrying and starting a family while still in school. With the coming population implosion we need to educate, encourage and support this very pathway. Congratulations on creating a group of likeminded women.
You are an inspiration to so many. Thank you for all you do and have done for your community.
Incredible journey and accomplishments! I also hope that she learns about the deception of all vaccines by reading Turtles All The Way Down, written by Israeli MDs.
Given her knowledge, I think she knows that book is false, as she has the training to see all the flaws in their data and its interpretation (link below). A big red flag is that the author didn't have the courage to stand by what they said, since it's written by "Anonymous." Thus, they can completely escape accountability for all their falsehoods. And no, they didn't do it to escape harassment, as it's the doctors who promote vaccines who get harassed. Just ask Dr. Peter Hotez. I've never heard of any pro-vaccine person harassing an anti-vaxxer, so there is no excuse for writing it anonymously. Legitimate medical books are not written anonymously.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/part-1-10-the-grand-debunk-of-the-antivaxxer-book-turtles-all-the-way-down/
5 authors! And I have known about the dangers and deception with the vaccines for 30 years now. My 4th Pediatrician (I left 3 other practices of clueless MDs poisoning babies and children) had the courage to tell me the truth! He had 4 children of his own. He also educated me on the immune system of babies/children I never looked back. He said he could tell what kind of mother I was, but that if I told anyone, he could lose his medical license. I am indebted to him to this day.
Pro-vaccine folks harass vaccine literate people constantly. What world are you living in? Peter Hotez is a criminal and charlatan! His own child has Autism. Wake up and smell the BS!!
Just commenting on the harassment bit…have you ever heard of Robert Kennedy Jr? I don’t think you can say that honestly.
At this stage of the game i stopped at the paragraph where she pushed the measles vaccines 💉
Prevention is a tough sell. You can't see all the illness and death that DIDN'T happen. When children were being paralyzed and dying from the poliomyelitis virus, parents were desperate to get their kids vaccinated. Now nobody worries about "the polio" anymore.
Children were being paralyzed by the DDT they were spraying on crops and on the children! Read up on the true causes of Polio in the book Dissolving Illusions.
Yes, I think the CDC, lockdowns, and mandates have destroyed so much trust, people will have to stop using the pro vaccine label. I think they will have to call themselves pro evidence based medicine because that label has come to mean people who force medical interventions with neutral-to-negative benefit ratios with school and colleges requirements.
Doctors don't call themselves pro intubation or pro electroshock therapy, do they? These are all just tools, and a single tool isn't fit for every job, no matter what the pro-hammer lobby says.
I agree with most of your comment with the exception of the “ pro electroshock therapy” doctors. There is an important debate raging about not only the use of ect but it’s increasing use amongst young teenagers and expanding its use for more and more “ diagnostic labels” . Ect is as barbaric as lobotomies and needs to be banned until and unless well designed randomized controlled trials are done with follow up for 2 to 5 yrs post the last ect. There are only a few poorly designed trials from the 1970 s that don t follow the groups beyond 6 months. Ect has never been through FDA approval process but was “ grandfathered “ in decades ago. Ect has never been shown to be either safe or effective. Ect is however hugely profitable for psychiatrists,anesthesiologists, and the facilities that offer it. Psych patients who are permanently damaged by ect have no voice as all their reports of symptoms are uniformly blamed”on their underlying diagnosis “. Because they are already labeled as “ crazy “ they have no credibility and malpractice lawyers refuse to take their cases.
As this is an article authored by a frum doctor , I will add that I was contacted by a frum person asking if I would agree to talk to a Satmat chossid about ect,as he wanted to have his wife undergo a series of ect . She was post partum her second child. I asked about her symptoms, “ was she truly depressed and asking for help, or did she not want to be pressured into another pregnancy right away ? Or did she no longer want to wear her “ sheitel”(wig) ? It was the latter 2. Her husband wanted to use psychiatry and ect to control the poor young woman.
In summary, ECT has no basis in science. It causes permanent and varied brain dysfunction( severe dense retrograde amnesia that is permanent ,
loss of ability to experience human emotions( no joy, no sadness, no empathy, no ambition, no desire, no love in people who experienced these vital human emotions prior to ect so they are acutely aware of what was erased), as well as other more subtle cognitive problems. Psychiatry has become the wild Wild West. There is no reporting on ect, no standard parameters for amp mount of current used, variable lead placement( uni vs bilateral ) . There is zero patient follow up. It is a true scandal and it’s use is growing.
Thank you for writing this, Disa🙏🏼🙏🏼 My mother was given ECT when her father, an Orthopedic Surgeon, was killed by medical error. They gave him the wrong blood type in a transfusion during surgery. She became incapable of mothering my 3 siblings and I, the youngest. This created a great deal of trauma for my siblings and I.
Myriam, I would really like to communicate with you directly. please email me at disa.sacks@ gmail.com
Just saw your message, Disa. I will email you tomorrow.
Please do
That’s too bad. The article is about openness and engagement, and your response is the opposite.