If you are part of the TL;DR crowd, then 🤷🏽♂️. If not, here are some of my - knowingly unsolicited - thoughts:
People do not want to put in the work for many things in life because, well, people expect immediate results without doing anything to actually, you know, EARN those results.
"Follow this 10 step plan and you'll get rich - GUARANTEED!"
"This pill will SHED off the pounds without needing to exercise! Look at all of our success stories!"
"There is a CURE for COVID. It's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromax. I have cured 350 patients without one death! No one needs to die!"
Seriously guys? All it takes is someone saying something is true for you to believe it? With no evidence whatsoever, not even anecdotal?
Man, those Nigerian princes must love you.
One point that needs to be made ABSOLUTELY clear and is UNEQUIVOCALLY true in our profession:
NO DOCTOR worth their salt would ever claim ANYTHING is 100% curative because NOTHING in science - or life - is 100% certain. It is an impossibility.
Not life. Not love. Not men being able to avoid catching their junk as they zip up their pants.
And definitely not a cure for COVID.
If a doctor - or anyone for that matter - EVER states something is 100% true or factual, at best, be skeptical; at worst, RUN THE FUCK AWAY CUZ YOU'RE BEING SCAMMED.
Snark aside - but just for a moment - there cannot be anyone who truly believes all doctors are equally as qualified to discuss all things medicine... right? PLEASE tell me no one believes this?
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the organization that sets the professional standards for all physicians in the US.
https://www.certificationmatters.org is the ABMS site where ANYONE can search to see if a doctor is board-certified in their particular area of expertise, myself included (spoiler alert: I am not a hack).
Board certification ensures a physician is held to a higher standard than just finishing medical school and completing a residency because the level of preparation each provides can vary dramatically from institution to institution.
In fact, an MD or equivalent behind your name does not mean you may even be board-ELIGIBLE to be certified. Especially if you have trained overseas since many countries cannot guarantee the same rigorous standards as we do with our medical education.
Stella Immanuel is neither board-eligible or board-certified. Just because she is licensed to practice medicine does not mean she is QUALIFIED to do so.
I know, it is scary. How can someone not qualified be licensed?
Well, how many bad drivers do you know who have driver's licenses when they CLEARLY should not, but are still allowed to put your life in danger every time they are on the road?
No licensing agency deserves much credit. Including our various state medical licensing boards.
Prime example: the Texas Medical Board website themselves state they have NOT verified Stella Immanuel's residency credentials and other information.
I am serious. Look it up yourself:
We cannot get to the point in society where every person's opinion means as much as another's - because it does NOT when it comes to areas of expertise.
I make my statements about COVID because I first-hand helped treat the sickest patients in the ICU during the crisis here in NYC - critical care is an essential component of anesthesia training - and not out of some random clinic that is unable to provide any evidence that what they claim is true.
Being a doctor does not give one expertise in speaking about all things medicine. I have friends who ask me medical advice all the time, and I will offer advice WITH THE CAVEAT that this is NOT my area of expertise, and I would not take anything I say as a specific medical recommendation.
And you better believe I will NEVER give a recommendation that could seriously be injurious to my friend. I would say speak to a trustworthy expert about it, not me.
Like Fauci. Not Stella Immanuel. The source where the information comes from MATTERS.
This should be so fucking obvious.
Could hydroxychloroquine + zinc + azithromax help some patients? Sure. ALL patients? Sorry, just no. And those treatments HAVE been used with mixed results.
Hydroxychloroquine may in fact work as a prophylactic, but comparing its use in malaria - where it is PROVEN it works - versus COVID - where it is UNPROVEN - is patently absurd.
And if it works, what is the appropriate dose and how long should one take it?
Hydroxychloroquine is taken once WEEKLY for malaria prophylaxis. Do we expect that will work with COVID? Or will it be needed to be taken more frequently or at a higher dose, which may increase risk of side effects? Or should we just wing it and let anyone take whatever amount their individual doctor suggests, who themselves would be winging it?
THIS IS WHY WE NEED PROPER SCIENTIFIC STUDIES.
People hate taking Tylenol and think vaccines are bad for you even though there are TONS of studies proving their efficacy and effective dosing. In anesthesia, giving an incorrect dose of a drug has the potential to KILL people.
Yet people all of a sudden are now willing to take a drug with NO PROOF it works on COVID because of a random doctor's opinion?
Apparently yes because as I stated in the beginning of this lengthy post, people will put stock in anything that could be a possible quick fix. Even in the case where they clearly contradict their own logic.
Because masks and social distancing are infringing on peoples freedoms so NOW it is okay to take a medicine a doctor recommends.
My heads wants to asplodes.
A pediatrician who believes gynecologic maladies stem from demon sperm is NOT someone people should be comfortable obtaining medical advice from regarding COVID.
Unless you take angel sperm as a prophylactic. Then, uhhhh, cool, you do you.
But if not, you should NOT trust your life, let alone your child's life, to the hands of this non-board-eligible or board-certified pediatrician (she is neither) who has been sued for malpractice in Louisiana, thinks government officials are just reptiles in disguise, believes scientists are creating a vaccine to prevent religiousness, and who did her medical school in West Africa.
And before anyone starts to accuse me of elitism, just stop. My comment is not meant to disparage or diminish all overseas training as some are quite excellent. Some of the most amazing physicians I have ever worked with trained overseas.
But unless you have seen what that sort of medical training looks like - and I have as I spent a month teaching anesthesia and administering anesthetics in Ethiopia back in 2011 - then you should NOT be taking modern medical advice from someone like this. Period.
Every single one of those doctors, the so-called "America's Frontline Doctors" - who most are actually NOT on the frontline - have something to gain financially and/or politically from spreading these unsupported claims.
Could their claims have SOME truth to them? Sure. But people should not be okay being the guinea pigs.
Though if you are okay with doing so, cool, I will then expect all of you to welcome a COVID vaccine with open arms 👍🏽.