As the podcast has been taken down, I can’t listen to it (even if I were inclined to) to determine whether it was as bad (read “traumatic”) as claimed. In its place is the apologia.
This is Dr Howard Bauchner, Editor in Chief of JAMA and the JAMA Network.
The podcast on structural racism based on the discussion between Dr Ed Livingston and Dr Mitch Katz has been withdrawn. Comments made in the podcast were inaccurate, offensive, hurtful, and inconsistent with the standards of JAMA. Racism and structural racism exist in the U.S. and in healthcare. After careful consideration, I determined that the harms caused by the podcast outweighed any reason for the podcast to remain available on the JAMA Network. I once again apologize for the harms caused by this podcast and the tweet about the podcast. We are instituting changes that will address and prevent such failures from happening again.
JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, is kind of a big deal, which makes what it says, and what it doesn’t say, a big deal. What did it say to cause such an apology?
Well, that’s a rather provocative claim, that no physician is racist. It’s unsurprising that it was not taken well.
The activists are going after JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association-since 1883).
To understand what it is really about, just read Dr. Marya's tweet:
"An apology is not enough. I want a change in who sets the narrative and agenda". pic.twitter.com/gRBivSapwA
— Amanda (@AmandaLuvsRoses) March 8, 2021
There were two possible ways to address this extremely controversial issue. One was to provide rational argument as to why it was wrong. The other was the reaction it received.
Some more early responses:
"Literally sick to my stomach"
"I didn't listen b/c honestly didn't want to be traumatized by the content" pic.twitter.com/IbCV8tbhsU
— Amanda (@AmandaLuvsRoses) March 8, 2021
And if course, this demanded blood be shed and a human sacrifice.
It may be that the content of the podcast was flagrantly racist. It may be that the content of the podcast wasn’t racist at all, despite the controversial twit. But when it comes to matters of medicine, science if you will, should it be constrained only to that which is, as is currently politically correct, “anti-racist”?
It’s hard to imagine, though certainly not impossible, that the content of the podcast was facially racist. Did they contend that black people are inferior, or that they were unworthy of the same medical care as white people? Was it argued that no white physician harbored bias against black people? Without hearing what was said, it’s impossible to say for sure. But this isn’t likely.
On the other hand, is there any area of knowledge where ideological limits are more dangerous than medicine? Yet, that, apparently, is what is now demanded of JAMA, and what JAMA apparently intends to do, to constrain science to align with ideology rather than the other way around. Anyone who truly cares about human beings and their health and welfare should insist that science not lie to itself, either for or against ideology, in ascertaining the best health care regardless of race or gender.
Is it really in the best interest of black people that JAMA, that the medical community, express no medical idea that conflicts with ideology no matter where the science takes them? Is health, even survival, secondary to feelings of offense at the possibility that medical science and ideology might part ways as the facts require? This isn’t progress. This is sacrificing black lives on the altar of the woke, and one would hope that docs, of all people, would adhere to the Hypocratic oath to “first, do no harm.”
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