What I'm Reading: "Scientists on Twitter head for the exit" and "The Moral Crisis of America’s Doctors."

Hi all,

This will be a quiet week here while I’m partly on vacation and partly not. Three quick items for you for today…

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1. Long Covid symposium. I’ll excited to share with you that I’ve been invited to give a keynote address at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine this Friday, June 22, in Washington, DC, at its “Symposium on Long COVID: Examining the Working Definition.” I’ll be speaking about my paper in Lancet Infectious Diseases entitled “The therapeutic validation of Long Covid,” and my Inside Medicine piece from earlier this month. It’s a great honor to be invited to speak at this event, and I’m looking forward to learning a lot while I am there. If you would like to attend my talk or others online, you may do so by following this link.

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2. What I’m Reading (Part 1). Over the weekend, a spectacle erupted over on Twitter on whether the respected pediatrician and vaccine researcher Dr. Peter Hotez ought to debate RFK Jr. about vaccines on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Elon Musk chimed in, essentially ganging up on Hotez (who I am friendly with, and have met just once at a conference). The pile-on that ensued crystalized an ongoing trend in which doctors and scientists are increasingly bolting from Twitter. An article in Axios entitled “Scientists on Twitter head for the exit” captured what many of us feel. The harassment and lack of content moderation—misinformation rules in ways it did not in the past—is just not worth it. Time was that I would see some misinformation on Twitter and try to correct it. Now, I know that doing so will basically ruin my day (trolls and attacks reliable ensue) and is rarely worth it. While I’ve only had to call the FBI once due to threats of violence made towards me, many of my colleagues have it far worse. Still, the question as to whether someone as knowledgable and admired as Dr. Hotez should go on Rogan’s show is an important one. As many have said, scientific debates are best had in the medical literature, rather than in forums in which reasonable science and unreasonable nonsense will be given equal time and status. A great post by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina and Dr. Kristin Panthagani covers much of what I would say on this topic. Here’s another good one by Dr. Ben Mazer on this.

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   3. What I’m Reading (Part 2). A reader sent me a New York Times article I’d been meaning to read that was making the rounds recently. "The Moral Crisis of America’s Doctors,” by sociologist Eyal Press touched on the many problems of modern medicine—specifically the emotional burdens of being a cog in the wheel of medicine. Both the strength and weakness of this article is how much ground it covers. Some of it rang very true, although I had some doubts as well. (The rosy picture of a kindly concierge doctor making time for patients for a “modest monthly fee” left me wondering what the fee was and whether it was worth it—or whether the doctor was putting on a performance for the writer.) So, please have a read and if you want me to address certain parts or discuss any of it, please raise them in the comments below.