HJNO Nov/Dec 2024

A PHYSICIAN’S RESPONSE 28 NOV / DEC 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS Physician A few things of what he said stood out in my mind. He started off by noting his belief that nearly every intervention, I’m going to paraphrase the best I can remem- ber, but nearly every intervention attempted by the state or by the government during COVID was ineffective or didn’t work or antithetical to the core principles of a free society. Every intervention? Every single one? That’s a pretty wild statement to say. Does that extend to accepting the aid of uni- formed federal medical professionals from the U.S. Public Health Service Commis- sioned Corps and from the U.S. military to come down and help provide much-needed staffing support in inpatient units and ICUs and the hospitals, so that the hospitals don’t become completely overrun and so we can continue to provide care for COVID patients and non-COVID patients alike, so that peo- ple that have strokes and heart attacks can still get care, so that cancer care can con- tinue? That was a very important govern- ment intervention that the state of Louisiana worked very closely with the federal gov- ernment, both the Trump administration and the Biden administration, to arrange for that, including with our hospitals. Does he think it is counterproductive to a free society to ensure that the hospitals can still care for anyone who needs them? Does his comment extend to the provi- sion of widespread COVID testing so that families can test themselves and make sure that they’re not contagious before they go meet with loved ones, so that I can go get my family tested before we meet with the grandparents so they don’t get COVID and get a severe infection? Testing happened first, and it was very widespread, testing sites. Louisiana was a leader on and worked hand-in-hand with the Trump administra- tion to set those up in the early days, and later, the provision of send-home tests. Is that what he’s referring to? I presume he’s not referring to those, but by making these broad comments, he’s systematically erod- ing trust in our health institutions, and that it was actually 20,000. On the magic silver bullet treatment, maybe, but it still wouldn’t have made much sense. If he really meant he discovered a treatment in December 2020 or January 2021, that’s nearly a year into the pandemic and wouldn’t fit with his “I didn’t lose a single patient”quip. Perhaps he got his months wrong and meant to say April 2020 or something like that. But for someone whose entire testimony is built around a premise of the prior team getting 100% of everything wrong and “I knew bet- ter the entire time,” that’s a rather glowing error. Editor What do you think of his comments on his seeing multiple patients a day who are vaccine injured? Physician It’s a wild thing to say. I think there are certainly families who have fam- ily members who have developed medical conditions and the family worries if it was a vaccine that caused that?That’s an under- standable concern for a family member. But those family members need medical care; they don’t need grandstanding. To take the autism issue, there is a voluminous body of research, not by the FDA, not by the CDC, but by independent academic researchers that has gone back and shown that there is absolutely no connection between the mea- sles vaccine and autism. In fact, that lie got started by a physician in England named Andrew Wakefield with a very, very small case [size] that he published in the journal of The Lancet — nine patients or 11 patients, something small of that nature — that he used to make the case that he thought there was a link. That’s what started the whole measles- autistic thing. It was later found out that he, Andrew Wakefield, straight up fabricated many of those case studies — just made them up. He lost his license in Britain. The Lancet formally redacted that study, but this lie is out there. And the reason why people are so susceptible for it is, if you are the parent has very damaging consequences whether people realize it right now or not. He says he would not recommend the COVID vaccine for any of his constituents. Any of them? Not even the elderly? Editor His patients. Physician He’s the surgeon general. We’re all his patients now. That’s the problem. He’s not testifying as a family doc. He’s testify- ing as the Louisiana surgeon general. He won’t recommend it for anyone — not even the elderly, not even people who are immu- nocompromised, not even chemotherapy patients?Absolutely damaging, unreal state- ments to make. And then he follows that up with just absolutely preposterous claims, like he personally treated 20,000 COVID patients in his clinic when the average pri- mary care patient panel was 1,500 or 2,000 or maybe 2,500 tops, and he didn’t lose a single one. And that he had somehow dis- covered a magic cure for COVID in Decem- ber 2019 and January 2020 before the pan- demic started — just preposterous. These are politically expeditious positions he’s taking but they have real, real damaging effects to the health infrastructure and people’s trust in health infrastructure and they’re quite frankly insulting. Insulting to individuals in the healthcare system of Louisiana who worked day and night, risked their lives to help keep hospitals open and keep people alive during the worst days of the pandemic. Revisionist, insulting, disgusting. Treating 15,000 to 20,000 COVID patients is absurd and fictious. A normal primary care patient panel is in the ballpark of 1,500 to 2,500. Editor Since that is a typical number, do you think he may have misspoken and meant 1,500-2,000? And got his years mixed up? Physician No way on the patient counts. He said 15,000 and then five minutes later said