A common theme these days is how the progressive left has impacted the Democratic Party in such a negative way. A topic that was brought to the fore in large part by Elon Musk, who has argued recently that today’s Democratic Party “has been hijacked by extremists” after pointing out that he “strongly supported” Barack Obama for president.
Just this week, the Tesla CEO tweeted: “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.”
Right on cue, the billionaire was hit with a predictable sexual harassment allegation, not that Musk will allow that to deter his fight for free speech.
The world’s richest man has some company along this line in Dr. Pierre Kory, who is president and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.
Kory penned an op-ed published by Fox News, where he says Musk is “right, stating that the Democratic Party’s “newfound and aggressive affinity for censoring debate and strong-arming doctors is making many of us rethink our political allegiance.”
“I’m a lifelong Democrat. I voted for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden,” Kory wrote. “I used to have an inherent aversion to Republicans, as I joke with colleagues, similar to how the vaccinated feel about the unvaccinated today. But as the pandemic unfolded, and I discussed with doctors across the country and around the world my experience treating patients, I met many new conservative colleagues and friends who put politics aside to focus on doing our best at the bedside. It made me more tolerant and understanding of their worldviews.”
“At the same time, I used to view Democrats, and the center-left more broadly, as the champions of free speech both in civil society and in our professional institutions,” he continued. “But now, as with today’s progressive political movement, medical boards are adopting policies that censor opinions, defining such speech as mis- or disinformation, especially scientific opinions around COVID. Medical professionals who refuse to toe the party line risk censorship, cancellation, and even the loss of license—a fate far worse than getting banned from Twitter. ”
As he notes, it’s the extremism, the utter intolerance on the left for dissenting opinion, that is having an impact on Kory’s political disposition, who voices his concern in the interest of patients.
“The trend is forcing doctors who exhibit critical thinking to face an existential choice: join the mob and support what many of us believe are dangerous policies without a sound scientific basis, or stand up and risk losing your livelihood,” he said. “This trend has troubling long-term implications for patients — something all of us will become at some point in our lives.”
Kory pointed to a bill moving through the California state legislature that he said “grants sweeping new powers to the state’s medical board to initiate investigations of doctors whose COVID treatment decisions ‘departed from the applicable standard of care.'”
“While I am all for policies that protect patients from irresponsible doctors, that’s not what this is,” he said. “In the bill, the definition of ‘misinformation’ is intentionally vague, the consequences are clear and severe, ranging from ‘disciplinary action’ to loss of a medical license.”
The policy defies critical thinking that doctors are taught in medical school and “flies in the face of medical and scientific training,” Kory said.
“In medical school, we are taught to apply critical thinking and question even established medical protocols and scientific dogma for important reasons—by questioning and researching, we more strongly understand the basis (or lack thereof) which underpin these beliefs,” he said. “The history of science is replete with established practices being overturned in this way. In medical practice, we are pushed to use all our knowledge to treat patients using our best judgement and abilities and to advance the practice of medicine. The California bill would demolish these tenets in one fell swoop.”
“Allowing bureaucrats or politicians to intrude on the doctor-patient relationship inflicts irreparable harm on the practice of medicine,” Kory added. “Free thought and expression would be replaced by fear and group think. Many doctors choose to go-along-to-get-along—even with policies they vehemently disagree with—rather than finding themselves out of work and struggling to feed their families.”
In addition to the likelihood that the California bill will set a precedent for other states to follow, Kory said that with Covid cases rising in some areas, “Falling in line with censorious Big Tech companies bottles up potentially game-changing treatments in our ongoing battle with COVID.”
The editorial referenced Dr. Anthony Fauci’s statement earlier this year that Covid will “ultimately find just about everybody,” to note that science is “constantly changing” and that physicians “need the freedom to do the same” in treating patients.
“It is an admission that would have been unthinkable two years ago amid the initial fear of mandatory lockdowns,” Kory said of Fauci’s take. “As facts and science change, so does our collective understand that drives public policy. That is how the system should work.”
“Tribalism and polarization have made our political and medical discourse nasty and divisive. Doctors must be kept above the partisan fray, not forced to take sides and pick a jersey,” he said in conclusion. “Our jobs are too important, and we need to be apolitical to maintain credibility with everyone who comes to us seeking treatment. Progress and innovative medical breakthroughs in the future depend on freedom and medical choice now.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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