We’d much rather people submit solid responses to articles that appear here than attack us for publishing articles they disagree with.

In a previous articleI discussed Dr. Vinay Prasad who said:

Yeah, I don’t believe in forgiveness because in my opinion, that bullshit always lies. I mean, if you want forgiveness, the first thing you have to say is what you actually did wrong. And they are always like that, well founded. Based on the best information we had, the length of time the fabric concealed two-year-olds was reasonable. No, he wasn’t your fucking liar.

These vulgar threats are commonplace in Dr. Prasad’s communications. However, since they are aimed at everyone trying to limit COVID, his collaborator Dr. Adam Cifu completely agrees with them. Although public health officials have bodyguards neededDr. Cifu continues to amplify Dr. Prasad and he has never criticized his inflammatory rhetoric to my knowledge.

However, Dr. Cifu believes that another class of doctors, namely those, like him, who profit from pro-RFK Jr. propaganda, should be spared even the mildest reprimands. Indeed, Dr. Cifu is a leader of Sensible Medicine, a monetized company Subpile of misinformation who publishes agitprop such as Why Doctors Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love MAHA by Dr. Joseph Marine, who deliberately covered up RFK Jr.’s anti-vaxx misinformation.

Even though Dr. Cifu happily profits from such misinformation, he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s OK with it. Maintain the claim that he is a very reasonable doctorDr. Cifu published a rebuttal to Dr. David Taylor titled RFK Jr is NOT the Contrarian we need. Although one might question Dr. Taylor’s decision to create the illusion of false balance, his article was perfectly cromulent. Of course, criticizing RFK Jr. for his role in killing 83 people in Samoamainly children, is a very weak bar, and Dr. Taylor passed it.

However, because Dr. Taylor accurately conveyed RFK Jr.’s risk, almost all Sensible Medicine readers hated him. It was completely predictable. Sensible Medicine has repeatedly told its readers not to trust doctors who advocate vaccines, and they have managed to communicate that message effectively. A typical and popular comment read:

Tens of thousands of parents can tell you in detail how they watched their happy, healthy child spike a fever, scream for 24 hours, then slide into autism after vaccination. Their stories are legion, and they are consistent. They were there, they saw it happen, they have no reason to lie. All investigations by the pharmaceutical industry and government into a possible vaccine-autism link have been blatant attempts to discredit the first-hand accounts of parents, not to investigate the truth. People no longer buy stories just because the press and authorities repeat them ad nauseam. RFK Jr. calls for nothing other than an honest investigation into the truth. Hopefully we can have vaccines AND safety, but not until you and your brothers open your eyes, stop blindly repeating lies, stop settling for data manipulation and whitewashed sleight of hand and will not require real, well-designed studies.

This is the audience that Dr. Cifu has cultivated and empowered. This is what he accomplished during the pandemic. This is his legacy.

Indeed, in the introduction to Dr. Taylor’s article, Dr. Cifu described vaccines as merely an intellectual parlor game, as if they were completely disconnected from the real world. Dr. Cifu wrote the following:

At Sensible Medicine, there’s nothing we love better than a lively debate. It’s even better when it happens without me having to respond to any of the Dr. Prasad’s prompts. We welcome articles that challenge anything we publish. We’d much rather people submit solid responses to articles that appear here than attack us for publishing articles they disagree with.

Dr. David Taylor submitted this essay in disagreement with one of Dr. Joseph Marine’s recent columns (Why Doctors Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love MAHA). Personally, I worry that in some people’s eagerness to break out of the status quo, they are too willing to ignore ominous signs about what’s next. I’ve also heard people granting appointees opinions they hope they have, without any evidence that they actually agree. I think Dr. Taylor echoes my concerns and expands on them.

Should we let RFK Jr. do to the United States what he did to Samoa? According to Dr. Cifu, reasonable people can “disagree” on this point, and what really matters is that no one hurts him. Dr. Cifu believes that tone matters to his detractors and only his detractors. They must be kind and gentle.

Motivating biases should not be considered harmful, but only taken into account.

Who attacked Dr. Cifu? I suspect Dr. Cifu was referring to myself and several others who asked him on social media how much he was profiting from Sensible Medicine. My query was motivated by Dr. Cifu’s 2019 article The arguments for being a conservative doctor in which he says:

The conservative doctor is therefore pragmatic about human nature and the dominant economic model of medical science. Thus, content experts, professional societies or newspaper publishers who criticize an industrial product too harshly put future funding at risk. Motivating biases should not be considered harmful, but only taken into account.

Dr. Cifu now rejects this reasonable sentiment, believing that anyone who considers her economic model and her the motivating prejudices “attack” it. However, I can’t help but consider Dr. Cifu’s business model and motivating biases, and I found them to be quite nefarious. Reviews of the article Why Doctors Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love MAHA don’t just “disagree”, we recognize that it is dangerousas with children, they will suffer and die needlessly.

He already has a body count. As Brian Deer wrote in his article I will never forget what Kennedy did during the measles outbreak in Samoa.

For months, families cried in front of small, heartbreaking coffins, until a door-to-door vaccination campaign ended the calamity. The final death toll exceeded 80.

Any doctor who legitimizes RFK Jr. is not only wrong, he’s saying tragedies like this don’t exist. it really mattersan attitude they have also expressed with COVID. It does not bode well for the future that doctors who can casually dismiss children killed by viruses will soon be responsible for so many things. The danger is real. However, by claiming that it is perfectly acceptable for doctors to legitimize RFK Jr., but that it is unprofessional to “attack” such doctors, Dr. Cifu downplays the real threat that RFK Jr. poses. .. Dr. Prasad told the world that RFK Jr. was sane and normal, and Dr. Cifu told the world that Dr. Prasad was sane and normal, while describing his detractors as hysterical and inappropriate. They “attacked”, and the substance of their arguments could therefore be summarily rejected.

Dr. Cifu’s claim that he should not be subject to such scrutiny raises obvious questions. Why is he immune from such criticism? Why shouldn’t we “attack” doctors who elevate an agent of anti-vaccine disinformation, especially since he is likely to rise to power? If doctors who profit from anti-vaccine misinformation don’t deserve to be censored, then who does? Is it acceptable for doctors to publish articles against wearing seat belts or taking swimming lessons? Why does Dr. Cifu refuse disclose how much he profits from Sensible Medicine? – even if $1 is too much. Why should someone center their feelings of privileged doctors simply because they do not want to be reminded of their very real role in the normalization of dangerous pseudoscience?

In fact, I believe in civil discourse and therefore hope that no one launches profane and prasadeesque attacks against Dr. Cifu. However, doctors who profit in any way of pro-RFK Jr. propaganda should be calmly and politely recalled at every opportunity for the rest of their careers. That’s all they should be known for. If RFK Jr. succeeds in doing in the United States what he did in Samoa, these doctors will have paved the way for him, even if they claim to be “pro-vaccine.” This is the sad and obvious truth, although Dr. Cifu will falsely characterize this as an “attack” aimed at intimidating potential critics and stifling the “vibrant debate” he claims. to kiss, but always somehow manages to avoid.

If I were associated with an organization that normalized RFK Jr. in any way, I would denounce it and run away with shame in my heart. In contrast, Dr. Cifu chose to stay, legitimize and profit. Although Dr. Cifu believes his sensitivities should come before the children’s health, no one is obligated to provide him with the safe space he feels he is entitled to. If he feels “attacked” when people remind him of his decisions and their potential real-world consequences, that’s too bad. He should have made different choices.

If Dr. Cifu truly welcomes “articles that contradict everything we publish,” he has my blessing to publish this article. However, something tells me it’s as sincere and genuine as his assertion that he is “decidedly pro-vaccine.”

And I never called anyone a “lying piece of shit.” Not even close.