I’m disturbed by the politicized tone of this article, beginning with comments by Dr. Khaldun from CVS Health regarding the “challenges she faced” when she served as chief medical executive for the State of Michigan. “This initially began when the White House downplayed the pandemic and made protective measures political instead of a public health issue,” she said. “It was very difficult to promote basic public health measures for the general public when it became so political.” While I believe the Trump administration made several crucial errors in initial management, I believe the first and foremost error made was the employment of Anthony Fauci, MD with his ever-changing, non-scientific recommendations. While the president rapidly shut down travel from China, the epicenter of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci was parroting the WHO’s judgment that the disease was not even transmitted person-to-person, and Democrat politicians in New York and San Francisco were openly criticizing the president for his “racist” act. This was done while dissident physician/scientists from China were warning the world of the pending danger. While that was happening, where was Dr. Khaldun and where was ACEP? Dr. Khaldun then complained that the administration was not strongly in favor of mask use. This was another area where Dr. Fauci repeatedly waffled. In that vein, ACEP supported the unscientific position that emergency physicians did not need to wear N95 masks while seeing all patients, and that simple surgical splash guards were adequate. That position was encouraged by big corporate medicine which had failed to develop an adequate supply of N95 masks aster the H1N1 flu scare. Rather than standing up strongly in favor of safety for emergency physicians, ACEP said nothing. Where was Dr. Khaldun and where was ACEP when Dr. Fauci finally came down on the side of the public wearing masks, yet didn’t define that the ONLY effective mask to wear was an N95? Why didn’t Dr. Khaldun and ACEP both advocate for widespread distribution of N95 masks along with their proper use. We instead saw a frightened public wearing worthless homemade pieces of cloth over their mouths while leaving their nose open and their systems vulnerable to disease. Finally, Dr. Khaldun fails to mention that presidential candidate Biden and vice presidential candidate Harris spent months campaigning for their positions disparaging the use of any vaccine produced under the previous administration. Too many in the news media parroted their duplicitous campaign slogan. Is it any wonder that many people then became frightened to take the vaccine after that? Where was Dr. Khaldun and where was ACEP when that was happening?
One Response to “Combating COVID in the Hospital, Community, and Media”
December 30, 2021
Daniel Levy, MD, FACEPI’m disturbed by the politicized tone of this article, beginning with comments by Dr. Khaldun from CVS Health regarding the “challenges she faced” when she served as chief medical executive for the State of Michigan. “This initially began when the White House downplayed the pandemic and made protective measures political instead of a public health issue,” she said. “It was very difficult to promote basic public health measures for the general public when it became so political.” While I believe the Trump administration made several crucial errors in initial management, I believe the first and foremost error made was the employment of Anthony Fauci, MD with his ever-changing, non-scientific recommendations. While the president rapidly shut down travel from China, the epicenter of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci was parroting the WHO’s judgment that the disease was not even transmitted person-to-person, and Democrat politicians in New York and San Francisco were openly criticizing the president for his “racist” act. This was done while dissident physician/scientists from China were warning the world of the pending danger. While that was happening, where was Dr. Khaldun and where was ACEP? Dr. Khaldun then complained that the administration was not strongly in favor of mask use. This was another area where Dr. Fauci repeatedly waffled. In that vein, ACEP supported the unscientific position that emergency physicians did not need to wear N95 masks while seeing all patients, and that simple surgical splash guards were adequate. That position was encouraged by big corporate medicine which had failed to develop an adequate supply of N95 masks aster the H1N1 flu scare. Rather than standing up strongly in favor of safety for emergency physicians, ACEP said nothing. Where was Dr. Khaldun and where was ACEP when Dr. Fauci finally came down on the side of the public wearing masks, yet didn’t define that the ONLY effective mask to wear was an N95? Why didn’t Dr. Khaldun and ACEP both advocate for widespread distribution of N95 masks along with their proper use. We instead saw a frightened public wearing worthless homemade pieces of cloth over their mouths while leaving their nose open and their systems vulnerable to disease. Finally, Dr. Khaldun fails to mention that presidential candidate Biden and vice presidential candidate Harris spent months campaigning for their positions disparaging the use of any vaccine produced under the previous administration. Too many in the news media parroted their duplicitous campaign slogan. Is it any wonder that many people then became frightened to take the vaccine after that? Where was Dr. Khaldun and where was ACEP when that was happening?