Faith, Fauci, and Medicine
Okay, this is going to be a tricky one, so let’s start with a mandatory fact: I am NOT a preacher, have no formal theological training, and the only values I ever seek to proselytize here are the primacy of the individual as the basis for good medicine, and the recognition that none of us deserve to take ourselves very seriously. But this site is “Authentic Medicine,” meaning we should speak to those items and attitudes each of us believes contribute to the practice of the same.
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Last week a little news blurb popped up about a personal side of The Fauci. Anyone who has read my stuff already knows that I think this is a world-league corrupt bureaucrat and seriously rotten individual who should be held accountable for mass-negligent homicide – but won’t be. In short, he is the opposite of what a physician SHOULD be. And so revealed aspects of Anthony Fauci’s perspective and self-regard might inform how he came to be The Fauci, a self-serving, malevolent narcissist inflicted on broader society through the dictatorial engines he championed and helped design.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci said practicing Catholicism is something he ‘doesn’t really need to” do during an interview earlier this month. The former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director told BBC he feels engaging with Catholicism is a formality.
‘I think my own personal ethics on life are, I think, enough to keep me going on the right path,’ Fauci said.”
My purpose here is not to advocate or discourage any particular faith. What interests me is Anthony Fauci’s assertion that his “own personal ethics” guide him. A lot of us took ethics in medical school, but I doubt that those classes significantly altered any of our established belief systems. I had classmates throughout medical training with beliefs similar to mine, and some very divergent, but so far as I recall, all of us agreed on – or at least paid lip service to – the basics of respecting and preserving individual lives, patient choice to the maximum degree, and the proper conduct of physicians regarding others. I think most of us assumed that most of us had some religious faith to less formal or more observant degrees, but I don’t remember talking about it all that much (I do remember one Jewish classmate who was orthodox to the degree that he transferred after second year to a school where he was able to better adapt his faith requirements to a third-year call schedule). I had some very devout instructors that would on occasion pray with patients in the exam room, and a couple of times was asked by a patient or family member to pray with them at the bedside, which I gladly did. Whole libraries have been written on the benefits of payer to healing, and building better relationships with patients and families, and a great deal of research has been done to document these benefits.
My question here is whether a religious faith, or belief in a higher power is necessary to practice effective, compassionate, authentic medicine? Does faith make one a better physician? Does reliance on something bigger steer one away from bad actions? Is turning inward sufficient to do this job properly, or do we need something more? What do you think?
You don’t need to practice religion if you think you are God.
Can’t say I know the guy, though I know people who knew him and worked with him. They held him in high regard. All opinions are 30-40 years old. The early days of HIV. Nothing recent. I think something happened to him in those intervening last few decades. Maybe Washington happened to him.
Wall Street Journal last week: “Francis Collins Has Regrets, but Too Few”
The former NIH chief and promoter of Covid lockdowns now says his view was too ‘narrow.’
Watching the Senate hearings and the back-and-forth between Fauci and Rand Paul. Senator Paul can be provocative, and I would have figured Fauci would have run rings around Paul, as I would sure have hoped Fauci knew a little bit more about virology compared to an ophthalmologist.
But all I saw was a lot of “you don’t know that you’re talking about”, and I’m watching and thinking Rand Paul wa discussing basic medical principles. Then Fauci called the Great Barrington Declaration “ridiculous”, “total nonsense” and “very dangerous”. Fauci is entitled to his opinion, but working to suppress the dissent is another matter. The authors of the Declaration are as prestigious as Fauci, probably more so.
I’m left with the conclusions that my friends who admired the guy had opinions decades out of date.
I consider myself a Christian, with varying degrees of success, and I have found some Christians who have a very exaggerated sense of the utility of forgiveness and are absolutely atrocious people. I have found some atheists who do not have any redemption process outside themselves and are extraordinarily moral. Just An insight.
I agree that many studies have shown that prayer, irregardless of which religion, is beneficial in helping to heal patients. It is mostly a psychological benefit as a patient feels cared about and that someone else out there is rooting for them. Physical touch is also been proven to be beneficial. Whether it’s just a hand on the shoulder, holding someone’s hand, or a hug. These acts reduce stress, lower blood pressure, etc.
To answer your question in regards to religion being required in some form to promote ethical behavior and morality, there’s plenty of evidence to show that ethics and morality do not require religion. The Golden rule has been around in some form throughout the history of the planet. All major religions have some form of it in their holy books. It is a non-religious sentiment. So yes, non-religious people can be ethical and have morals. In medicine though it depends on what the patient will benefit from most. I have witnessed non-Christian doctors pray with a Christian patient because the patient requested it. Because they knew it would help the patient.
If this is a subject of interest to anyone, there’s a very good book titled “What it Means to be Moral” by Phil Zuckerman.
In my less than humble opinion, Anthony Fauci is the Devil Incarnate and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever!!
He belongs in prison for the crimes he committed against humanity.
My ardent wish is that he burns in Hell for eternity.