JAMA is Corrupt by Pat Conrad MD
Odd as this may sound, it turns out that Pres. Obama and I have something in common beyond both of us being obligate aerobes. It seems we have both been published in JAMA.
The L.A. Times is ripping JAMA for publishing an Obama op-ed, and styling it as a scientific article. Just reading the abstract, styled like a “real” JAMA paper, would be satire straight from The Onion were it not so vomit-inducing. It is signed “Barack Obama, JD”, as though his law degree has any relevance. (The methodology used by this one-time constitutional law scholar to pass the ACA shows the Dear Leader to have as little respect for actual law as he does for actual science).
Under “Evidence”, Obama cites: “Analysis of publicly available data, data obtained from government agencies, and published research findings. The period examined extends from 1963 to early 2016.” You can read his data for yourself, but the sentence I particularly enjoyed was: “For most Americans in most places, the Marketplaces are working.” Obama writes what is an obviously political essay, merely formatted as a scientific article, and then agrees with his own self-congratulations.
The L.A. Times writers Berezow and Hartsfield provide a true service by pulling the mask off of this farce: “It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find another paper in any scientific journal in which a politician was allowed to subjectively analyze his own policy and declare it a success. This is a textbook definition of conflict of interest.”
And that conclusion is the truly scary part. We can eviscerate Obama’s ACA till the socialists come home, and it won’t matter to its benumbed, benighted, and bemused supporters. The overwhelming majority of those who have private insurance are seeing ridiculous premium/deductible increases with no commensurate increase in service, and we’re told by all the ACA drones that things are better, contrary to our own discounted experiences. But now a purportedly scientific journal has given itself over to being a mouthpiece for the administration: “Obviously, JAMA held the president to a different, lower standard than it would an academic scientist. In fact, JAMA editor-in-chief Howard Bauchner admitted as much. In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, he said that Obama’s article was peer reviewed, but that he was allowed “a bit more flexibility because of who he is.” He also acknowledged that, “we don’t fact-check every fact.”
So the article was peer-reviewed…except that it wasn’t. That is the duplicitous cowardice exhibited by Chief Justice Roberts’ linguistic gymnastics in upholding the ACA by declaring a non-tax a tax.
Twenty-two years ago, I wrote a short story that depicted a dystopian health care environment based more on mistrust and fear than actual care. It was originally printed in the Journal of the Florida Medical Assoc. and subsequently picked up by JAMA. So gunga, gunga-la-gunga. I’ve got that going for me. My piece was obviously opinion, written as cautionary fiction (which has already largely come true, I’m sad to say).
The L.A.Times writers end by saying that JAMA should stay out of politics. That is too fine a point.
Whether they agree with Obama’s agenda, or are getting favorable tax treatment, running a presidential op-ed, which is arguably fiction, as a “scientific” paper makes JAMA a willing instrument of propaganda. JAMA is corrupt.
What would you’all expect from the AMA! This is the same organization who sold its membership and every Physician out by endorsing the ACA , Its the same organization that allowed the president to speak telling us all we can keep our health plans , keep our doctors, for a deal to get the payment schedules stabilized. Only to have afterwards the democrats renege on .
It just proves the point that those who control the ink and presses can say and do anything they want and make it look legitimate.
This is how our leaders envision comedy. The running of an editorial in the garb of a scientific study was a lark by the editorial board of JAMA, a comic turn. It was as silly as George Bush’s famous skit at the press club dinner, where he ‘pretended’ to look for WMD’s on-stage.
It is easy in Washington to dismiss the cost to the citizenry of lives and suffering. They are quantifiable; therefore they are reducible to non-human parameters.
Vietnam? 58,209 deaths, of which 47,424 were combat deaths. See how easy it is?
Vietnam: 153,303 wounded, most of whom have PTSD to some degree. Hmm.
Father Barack wrote an editorial in doctor-speak, because we are idiot-savants who read nothing but JAMA, and need a leader’s kind outreach to direct us. A condescending lark will show us idiot-savants that we need to take quality seriously, etc.
We are enshrining authoritarian methods and principles in medicine. Yet, we are aghast that others who have worked under such methods seek a leader in Donald Trump. Can’t they think for themselves? A handful of decades in recent history have showed how trained obedience is a core value for the educational system and the workplace. You run in the little wheel, you become accustomed to the view.
Set aside the moral collapse and erosion of standards in the medical literature, which is completely driven by “Citizens United” concepts – money talks. Big Pharma is tired of being watched by doctors, is tired of doctors entirely. We act independently to modulate sales for BigPharma. They want obedient clerks, not “arrogant doctors.”
These people do not see that they have trained us to defer to a great Bwana-Father, and are aghast when the electorate chooses one. If this is Fascism, why is it so broadly admired in the country? Vietnam killed a load of American boys, on a whim. Iraq was invaded on a whim – see Britain’s Chilcot Report. Medicine is being wrecked on a whim, with polite condescension towards the obstacles. In Vietnam, the recalcitrant population received napalm; in the US, recalcitrant physicians receive a “journal article” from the Chief. Was it accredited for CME?
EMR’s represent an automaton that contains Newspeak; horribly compacted babble in an English form. Yet those who resist EMR’s are seen as Luddites. Our cries of ‘WOLF!’ are met with condescension and sarcasm.
Let it be. Sometimes the worst curse for a population is that the wheel of Karma replies with the consequences of their actions. This will be a doozy.
Wow. As much as some make of Mr. Trump’s propensity for “fascism,” the publication of a piece of thinly disguised propaganda directly from the pen of the “Leader” in the premiere journal of a major profession that is unrelated to him is actual, real-life fascist (or tin-horn dictator) stuff.
Makes it clear what the nature of “health care reform” and its “reformers” really are, I suppose.
Jeez.
If one looks for Fascism, one can see that it has been planted, fostered, cared for, ripened and reaped in so many places. The K-12 school environment is a thinly-disguised prison for the re-education of inmates. No guns – and no thoughtcrime, no THINKING of guns! We do not understand that such ignorant, abusive and humiliating treatment warps children – and makes the occasional unbalanced individual go off like a rocket. ALL OF THE KILLINGS take place due to Axis II/Cluster B individuals’ violent strike-back at a location that has produced years of humiliation – the workplace, the school, not the whorehouse or the casino.
I doubt that Mr. Trump is Fascist ENOUGH to satisfy the New America. The virulent epidemic of fascism among the American populace well exceeds anything that Trump has offered, in its violent intensity and breadth of scope. We are sick of it, we want a Leader to make things run right.
Watch.
I would say that I agree with all of that, Steve.
I am standing back and watching this process with fascination – I have studied the Nazis a fair amount since I was in high school, and I’ve always wondered what the inception of Fascism would look like in the US, and if this is not it this time, it is certainly creating a road map to better guide the next contestant.
In the end, I very nearly don’t care about the outcome, as I agree with Mr. Franklin that the people get the government that they deserve, and I have freshly renewed passport and a skill that is valuable throughout the world.