“God gave us two arms, one to vote for Donald J. Trump”
To gain power and deflect criticism, MAHA doctors marketed themselves as neutral scientists and cloaked themselves in science’s protective norms. They demanded to be treated with the utmost civility, as befits esteemed scientists, and felt entitled to have their pro-infection agenda debated in scientific forums. They sanctimoniously warned others:
We can’t allow questions of science, medicine, and public health to become captives of tribalized politics.
Of course, this was pure theater. Although MAHA doctors denied being political, even while speaking at political rallies, in reality they were primarily political actors, and they didn’t hide this at all. The same doctors who faked a concern about mixing politics and science openly campaigned for Trump and hurled false, juvenile accusations against his perceived opponents in overtly political forums. MAHA doctors didn’t spend the pandemic in labs or hospitals, and an entire chapter of Everyone Else Is Lying to You was devoted to their overt political activism, though this just scratched the surface.
“I just love him”
These performances worked though. Their auditions were successful. Trump won the election and their advocacy on his behalf catapulted MAHA doctors to power. Today, as their boss requires, they continue to behave like love-stricken teenagers and lavish praise on Trump at every opportunity.
In this video, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, says “I just love him” while telling a cutesy anecdote about Trump lying to the public about Tylenol in pregnancy. Dr. Bhattacharya found such deceptions from the POTUS amusing.
In this video, Dr. Bhattacharya says it is “ridiculous slander” to say that Trump is anything but a champion of science.
In this video, Dr. Marty Makary says that his soon-to-be leaving CBER director, Dr. Vinay Prasad, “loves” Trump. “If you listen to his podcast, you’ll see he has been an ardent supporter of everything Trump has done,” said Dr. Makary. I couldn’t think of a worse insult to Dr. Prasad than this, but Dr. Makary is right about Dr. Prasad’s podcasts.
Dr. Makary agrees with Dr. Prasad. In this video, he gushes over Trump saying:
He’s an amazing guy, a phenom really. He has more energy than anybody and amazing instincts, better than some of the academic elites in America.
In this video, Dr. Mehmet Oz calls Trump an “excellent executive and superb leader”.
In this video, Drs. Makary and Oz, along with Kennedy, nod along as Trump tells lies about Portland burning to the ground and boasts of ICE deployments.
“A whole civilization will die”
As our Mad King threatens to wipe out whole civilizations with MAHA doctors at his back, I’d like to reiterate two points I’ve made previously.
First, this explains why it was both dangerous for “respectable” doctors to falsely portray MAHA doctors as “apolitical”, good faith actors and reprehensible for them to mock those who warned of their obvious danger. These sycophants did far more than disregard the COVID disinformation of MAHA doctors, though that is shameful enough, they also legitimized their political endorsements. When MAGA 2.0 and MAHA were on the rise, many of us stuck out our necks to sound the alarm bell. In contrast, the enablers rolled out the red carpet, even if they are now oh-so horrified by what they helped unleash on us all.
Second, not only will MAHA doctors be tied to Trump’s attacks on science, they lent the legitimacy of the medical profession to his entire agenda. As such, they will permanently be linked to it all. It doesn’t matter if they object or think this is unfair. As public servants, they don’t get to choose how the public judges and remembers them.
However, they were not and are not without agency. No one forced them to confess their infatuation for Trump and literally stand behind him as he spewed dangerous lies. They chose to do this. No one is stopping them from resigning today. Every day they show up to work, with sweet declarations of love for Trump pouring from their lips, they are further reaffirming their decision to bind themselves to everything he does.
They only have 3 more years to go. So do we all, sadly.
