What Happens When Doctors Can't Trust the Government?
And then I stopped dead in my tracks, the words 'we recommend' lingering in the air. This is how I'd always phrased these types of recommendations, but I was suddenly unsure of who the 'we' was. Up until recently, it meant a medical community that included not just my health care colleagues, but also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, respected medical journals and the research community. It's not remotely feasible for practicing clinicians to review every medical study out there, so we rely on trusted colleagues and institutions with the relevant expertise to help guide us.
The 'we' suddenly rang hollow. The institutions I trusted to be deliberative and evidence-based sources of knowledge that extend my medical abilities are no longer that. In the first Trump administration, despite relentless attacks from the president, the nation's public health institutions remained largely intact, if wearied. But the plunder of the second Trump administration has disemboweled them and installed fox-guarding-the-henhouse leadership. Medical professionals can no longer fully trust federal health guidance, and our patients are the ones who will suffer the most.
For most of my colleagues and me, the C.D.C. and the N.I.H. were the medical Mount Olympus, the towering pillars of medical authority. Contrary to right-wing portrayals, these were not dictatorial authorities. These were earned authorities, comprising our best, brightest and most dedicated peers. The formidable talents of these doctors and scientists would have commanded enviable salaries had they taken jobs in industry, but they chose the public sector instead — something that we clinicians were forever grateful for.
Were there egos, missteps and shortcomings? Sure. But by and large, the people I met who worked for the C.D.C. or N.I.H. were brilliant and rigorous, and cared passionately about the science they were pursuing. While there are some doctors who viewed our public health institutions with disdain — some of them now are running these very organizations — most practicing physicians relied heavily on them to deliver the best care possible to their patients, despite occasional quibbles.
What a relief, I always felt, that there were people organizing the things I can't do — testing new treatments, conducting population studies, keeping tabs on worldwide diseases, issuing guidelines and more.
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Melissa Lockwood, DPM, a podiatrist at Heartland Foot and Ankle Associates in Bloomington, Ill. Richard H. Graves, DPM, a podiatrist at Sol Foot & Ankle Centers in Long Beach, Calif. Our health content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as professional medical advice. Consult a medical professional on questions about your health.
