Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Medicine's Injection of "Woke" Ideology

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Yesterday President Biden defended his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan saying "the buck stops here." What he completely ignored was that it was his lack of execution of that withdrawal, not the decision to do so that has Americans from both political parties deeply concerned. And our enemies celebrating. 

I'll be talking more about that on the radio today.

John Murawski has written an in-depth investigative article about how the "woke" ideology is twisting medical science into something it was never intended to be---something that will destroy rather than heal. 

"National racial reckoning and critical race theory is taking over the world of medicine and healthcare," he says.

Be informed, not misled.

I'll be talking about the very latest events in the chaotic handling of the withdrawal of US forces and other US personnel from Afghanistan on our live radio program this morning. Please join me. Here's how. 

John Murawski has written an excellent---and lengthy investigative article on how medicine is falling prey to the so-called "woke" culture of the day.

It's a two-part report. This is part one. This is part two

I recommend you read it. 

The following is an overview of his report with some of my own observations:

The takeover.

"The national racial reckoning over reparations and critical race theory is taking over the world of medicine and healthcare," he writes. 

Continuing he says: "Prestigious medical journals, top medical schools, and elite medical centers are adopting the language of social activism and vowing to confront 'systemic racism' dismantle 'structural violence' and disrupt 'white supremacy' in their institutional cultures."

Rare is the doctor who is willing to publicly question claims of white privilege and implicit bias in the healthcare system, and already several doctors who have publicly pushed back have been demoted and have filed legal actions alleging retaliation.

This year the medical profession received an unequivocal message when two editors of the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association resigned under pressure over a podcast that aired opinions expressing skepticism that the United States is plagued by systemic racism.

During this past year, more than 200 government bodies and private institutions declared "racism a public health care crisis," clearing the way to hire more minorities no matter their experience as doctors, academics, administrators, and editors as caretakers and gatekeepers.

Clyde Yancy, Northwestern University medical school vice dean for diversity and inclusion, wrote this: "All physicians, and particularly those in academic medicine, can and should address racial equality and engage with Black Lives Matter because atonement matters."

Anti-racist medicine calls for more black doctors. But that could mean jettisoning old medical standards.

The reasoning goes like this: because minorities, specifically blacks, have been discriminated against they have not had the opportunity to receive an equitable education. Consequently, grades and scores are no longer a credible way of measurement for academic qualification.

Sally Satel, an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow and author, notes that "Differences of any kind---in income, education, school performance, and, or, of course, health---are manifestations of racism and racism alone in this ideology.

She says "The practice of  'equity', the enactment of critical race theory, permits, if not endorses, unequal treatment of the dominate group in order to arrive at equal group outcomes, even if it is to the detriment of ailing individuals."

What about the Hippocratic Oath?

William Jacobson, clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, says: "The medical ethics quandry tests the foundational principle of medicine itself, the Hippocratic Oath, by which doctors take a vow to 'do no harm'."

He says medicine in equalizing outcomes between blacks and whites may necessitate tolerating a greater loss of life...."It's a very ideological approach...People are going to die, so you have to agree with everything I have to say. And if you disagree with it, you want people to die apparently."

Jacobson  also notes that the race equity push is "extremely lucrative for consultants and administrators who have a vested interest in perpetuating the problem."

The question lurking just below the surface is the sensitive question no one wants to discuss on the record: the quality of med students and doctors who have lower test scores and worse grades, and presumably would not have been admitted if not for the affirmative action.

Norman Wang, a University of Pittsburgh cardiologist whose peer-reviewed an article questioning the legality of racial preferences was, four months after it was published, retracted, leading to Wang's demotion and public denunciation by his employer and by the journal that initially saw fit to publish it.

Wang wrote, "Long-term academic solutions and excellence should not be sacrificed for short-term demographic optics."

The AMA is encouraging all physicians to align with "anti-oppressive and anti-racist praxis" to dismantle what it calls the white patriarchy.

Among the group's policy proposals is: "Medical schools must eliminate racial grading disparities."

There's more. But that is a quick look at how the medical field is being twisted and reshaped by the "woke" ideology.

Any honest inquiry is most often immediately attacked as racist. This investigation is no exception.

I found it very informative and helpful personally. I hope you will as well.

Personally, I do not believe there is a secular solution for racism. Racism, along with lists of other sins, is embedded in broken humanity---all have sinned and come short.

True equality is found at the cross of Jesus Christ. Authentic, biblical Christianity is the answer.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.