Mainstream media

How fake news about transgender mice is hurting real patients

Policy
April 23, 2025

Poisoned puppies, rats on cocaine, transgender mice: these might sound like the beginning of a bizarre joke, but they’re at the center of growing political attacks on medical and scientific research. Senator Ted Cruz calls it the “woke nonsense” of the Biden administration’s “far-left ideology,” and Donald Trump has amplified the message, using a primetime congressional address to claim researchers are attempting to turn mice transgender. In a House committee …

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How DrKoop.com rose and fell: the untold story behind the Surgeon General’s startup

Social media
April 19, 2025

An excerpt from Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General.

“I’ve had two major messages that I’ve tried to get out to the public all my professional life,” Koop proclaimed. “One is to take charge of your own health. The other is that there is no prescription I can give you that is more valuable than knowledge … I’ve tried the non-profit world, …

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How physicians can fix media bias with science

Physician
August 19, 2024

The assassination attempt is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The “gaslighting” is over. The rules for truth by legacy media are never examined for objectivity. We do not have the Inquisition in the United States; we have the legacy media.

One “fact-checker” measures truth by “Pinocchios.” There is a better way—hypothesis testing. Who better to know about hypothesis testing than a physician?

What if the facts about how Medicare is …

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Medical misinformation: How to find clarity in a sea of contradictory advice

Conditions
June 20, 2024

I read an array of medical literature, both technical and public. But despite my education, experience, and reasonable intelligence, I find myself bewildered by the overwhelming deluge of information and recommendations: frequently contradictory, at times inaccurate, and often meaningless, that presently inundates individuals. If I can be befuddled, what about the average person with a high school diploma or a bachelor’s degree and little medical experience?

Perhaps there is so much …

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TV medical school: where doctors don’t need nurses and bullets heal themselves

Physician
May 16, 2024

Clearly, four years of college, four years of medical school, and three years of pediatric residency weren’t a complete medical education. There are so many things I didn’t know until I started watching action-packed TV shows, especially the ones with SWAT teams, detectives, and lots of blood.

My training was clearly deficient in neck jabbing. You know, when the bad guys sneak up on the good guy, jab him randomly in …

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Princess and the pauper: Both deserve health privacy

Physician
March 28, 2024

The sad news of Princess Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis is a sound reminder of the sanctity of a person’s health status and their right to privacy.

I wasn’t sure which adjective I should use to describe Kate’s diagnosis – “sad,” “tragic,” or “devastating.” All are equally true, depending on whose perspective you consider. No doubt a cancer diagnosis is “sad” in the public’s eyes and even harsher in Kate’s. In my …

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How Barbie exposes sexism in medicine

Physician
February 26, 2024

A scene in the movie Barbie is all too familiar to female physicians. Ken asks a female physician, “Can I talk to a doctor?” and she replies, “You are talking to a doctor.” He ignores her, then requests her assistance with various menial tasks (“Can you get me a coffee … I need a clicky pen”) before abruptly walking off in the direction of two short-haired, presumably male medical professionals, …

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Health misinformation’s deadly impact

Policy
July 29, 2023

Turning into vegetarians can cure COVID-19, birth control pills cause abortions, or eating ginger is 10,000 times more effective than chemotherapy at curing cancer were some casually trending health misinformation in the past year. But what is health misinformation, and why is it a serious public health concern?

Health misinformation refers to health-related information that is false, unverified, and lacking scientific evidence. It poses a significant threat to public health as …

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Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

Physician
February 21, 2023

During the COVID pandemic health care workers needed to work tirelessly to correct the false information that politicians easily spread through the country. The President made claims that the virus was not real, that physicians were getting financial kickbacks from using COVID on death certificates, and that health care workers were benefiting from the pandemic. Physicians, nurses, and staff needed to talk to patients about COVID, and it really took …

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Unpacking the timely need to address the lack of diversity in medical media

Education
January 5, 2021

Multifaceted diversity continues to be a challenge to achieve in medicine, which is concerning given the irreplaceable value that a diverse community of clinicians provides to research, patient care, and medical education. Current initiatives to expand diversity are centered around academic mentorship models, in which striving to teach more students the life sciences and frontiers of biomedicine as early as elementary or middle school can provide critical exposure and pique …

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8 things physicians should know before they’re interviewed by the media

Physician
December 12, 2020

Lights, camera, action!

You get a call from your hospital’s public relations office asking you to speak to the local news. Even though this isn’t your first time, your heart is pounding, with a mix of nerves and excitement. You start doubting whether you have anything valuable to say about the topic, even though, yes – you went through many years of medical school and residency before this moment. You are …

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What does cable news do to your brain? A neurosurgeon explains.

Conditions
October 25, 2019

The availability of up to the minute information, presented 24/7/365, could assist a democratic society in making the best choices in determining its future. That was the promise of cable news. Unfortunately, cable news has fallen short of its potential and has led to the further polarization of America. More than that, it has changed the way your brain works. Not for the better!

The various cable …

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Physicians need better PR

Physician
August 3, 2019

On July 8, 2019, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine wrote a letter to the American Medical Association, asking the organization to create a public campaign to support physician-led care.

Noting concerns over the recent media crusade to promote nurse practitioner care to patients, including the American Association of Nurse Practitioners “We Choose NPs” campaign, the letter asks the American Medical Association to combat the …

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Stop the anti-doctor media bias

Physician
May 2, 2019

The April 18, 2019 CNN headline was a prime example of clickbait: “Feds charge doctors in 8 states in opioid bust, including ‘Rock Doc’ accused of trading pills for sex.”

The only problem with this headline? Of the 60 individuals charged, half were not physicians. More importantly, Jeffrey Young, the so-called “Rock Doc” who prescribed nearly 1.5 million pills of opioids and benzos often in exchange for …

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Should medical residents appear in reality TV shows?

Physician
April 6, 2019

This notice appeared on a general surgery news website in early February.

I don’t know who has been long anticipating this, but I’m pretty sure it’s not people on medical Twitter. My informal, nonscientific Twitter poll garnered 707 votes with 87 percent of those responding saying they would not allow their residents to participate in a reality television show.

Many of those who …

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Why medical students should not let medicine define them

Education
October 31, 2018

Sanjay Gupta. John Locke. Jill Stein. Charles Krauthammer. What do they all have in common?

If you guessed that they are all physicians, then you’re right.

Less salient, however, is the fact that all of them pursued passions outside of medicine. (Dr. Gupta is an Emmy Award-winning medical reporter. John Locke was a physician-philosopher. Stein and Krauthammer both made their mark in politics.) In doing so, they avoided an existential trap that …

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In defense of FOX’s The Resident

Physician
February 13, 2018

The public’s apparently insatiable appetite for medical drama continues unabated as yet another prime-time TV show set in a hospital has hit our screens. FOX’s The Resident has generated discussion like no other. This may simply be due to the fact it’s the first major launch in the era of widespread social media, but it seems to have enraged a vast swathe of our ranks. Has The Resident crossed a …

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