A lot of people started to notice during COVID-19 that some doctors seemed more interested in government policies and narratives than in excellence in healthcare. But with recent stories on radical leftism in hospitals and medical education, it seems necessary to ask just how much woke has permeated the medical field and whether it will bring down the quality of healthcare in the U.S. Could individuals eventually even be denied medical care based on political affiliation?
Two recent stories illustrate the infiltration of leftist politics in the medical field. I already reported on the Mayo Clinic offering a course that examines “racial equity,” “structural racism,” and alleged “anti-Blackness.” It appears to be a course for doctors, nurses, and medical staff to be indoctrinated in critical race theory (CRT).
Robin DiAngelo, one of the guest lecturers, wrote the New York Times bestseller “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” If that isn’t bad enough, her “area of research is in Whiteness Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, tracing how whiteness is reproduced in everyday narratives.” Whatever that means. And what does any of this have to do with providing excellent medical care?
Now Campus Reform is reporting on San Diego State University (SDSU) using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) standards to judge potential applicants for a professor of cancer biology. “Candidates must satisfy two or more of the eight Building on Inclusive Excellence (BIE) criteria,” the job listing states. What are those criteria? SDSU thoughtfully provides them—here are a few:
Candidates that meet BIE criteria: (a) are committed to engaging in service with underrepresented populations within the discipline, (b) have demonstrated knowledge of barriers for underrepresented students and faculty within the discipline…(d) have experience or have demonstrated commitment to integrating understanding of underrepresented populations and communities into research…(f) have experience in or have demonstrated commitment to research that engages underrepresented communities…and/or (h) have research interests that contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education.
Not quite as bad as the Mayo Clinic, but we’re not in the Jim Crow era anymore — what are “underrepresented communities”? How should a medical professor be promoting “diversity” in higher education? And how exactly does any of this make doctors and medical professors better at their jobs?
If the above doesn’t seem too explicit in CRT ideology, here’s a quote from SDSU’s 2023/2024 hiring guide (page 20): “In the United States, specifically North American histories of colonization, slavery, and exclusion have created systemic, widespread inequities in the life opportunities enjoyed by members of different social groups. As a public-serving institution, SDSU is committed to addressing these inequities.” That’s definitely CRT language.
This wokeness in training and hiring medical professionals, either in education or hospitals, clinics, etc., could bring down the quality of healthcare in America. As we’ve seen in the non-medical educational sphere, many teachers are far more focused on leftist indoctrination than on educating students, and, unsurprisingly, children are learning CRT and LGBTQ ideology even as their test scores are hitting new lows.
I even wonder if this will lead to a refusal of medical care based on political affiliation for individuals such as journalists, activists, or lawyers critical of the current Democrat-controlled government. This isn’t quite as crazy a supposition as some might think. During COVID-19, some Americans experienced doctors refusing them care or pressuring them based on government narratives that have since been exposed as scientifically faulty or even false.
For instance, a Florida doctor started refusing in-person treatment to unvaccinated patients in 2021. Multiple individuals were refused life-saving organ transplants because they did not get the COVID vaccine. There’s a good deal of evidence now on the risks and injuries from COVID vaccines, yet life-saving care was denied to Americans based on vaccination status. In a less extreme example, I personally was denied treatment at an emergency room in Virginia in 2021 until I put on a face mask — despite my official medical exemption from masking.
Not only that, but there are also a few instances of medical care being denied for apparently political reasons. Some thousand Americans have been arrested in connection with Jan. 6, 2021, and many of those prisoners have experienced outright abuse and denial not only of rights but of necessities in jail. More than one Jan. 6 prisoner was denied necessary medical care during imprisonment. If it could happen to Jan. 6 “offenders,” why couldn’t it happen to others?
In fact, a woman was recently denied her cancer treatment at an Oregon clinic after she complained about the clinic’s transgender flag in a message to her doctor. Don’t be surprised if that turns into a trend rather than a shocking exception.
People will point out that for COVID, for the transgender critic, and for Jan. 6 these cases are seemingly isolated, restricted to certain doctors, prisons, or areas. But the very fact that they occurred in and were justified in America is a sobering presage of what could happen in the future. Wokeness might be infiltrating only some medical education institutions or hospitals now, but if the current tyranny of LGBTQ ideology is any indication, that wokeness is likely to spread and worsen.
If — and when — wokeness has firmly taken hold of the medical industry, expect to see less quality of healthcare and more refusal of care in the U.S.
