Demoralized and Disenfranchised
Infectious Disease Specialists Report Lowest Professional Satisfaction
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/physician-happiness-before-after-covid-19-how-29-specialties-stack-up.html
I am not a fellowship trained infectious disease (ID) specialist. I trained before fellowships in ID were common in the 1970’s. But it is a specialty near and dear to my heart. I had the great privilege of leaning from some of the greatest infectious disease doctors of the twentieth century. Luminaries like Dr. Michael Apicella who developed the meningococcal vaccine, Dr. William Stead who developed treatment for Tuberculosis and Dr. David Gilbert, former President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Editor of the JP Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy. Infectious disease is, for me, the most interesting and gratfying specialty. The two greatest contributions to human health, antibiotics and vaccines came from within this specialty. I love ID so much, I did complete additonal training in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. It is the medical specialty I am closest to.
So it grieves me greatly to see this wonderful specialty that has done so much for humanity, now languishing at the bottom of the barrel of physician satisfaction. The cause of this precipitous decline needs further study but here is what my ID colleagues tell me - COVID did it. More accurately, our response to COVID is the reason why ID doctors feel demoralized and disenfranchised.
First of all, their warnings about an inevitable pandemic were ignored. Then their recommendations were ignored. Their efforts to manage the pandemic were overruled. Their pleading for mass vaccination was ridiculed. Their advice regarding masking and other mitigation strategies set aside. All the while, they watched as HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of Americans suffered and died needlessly due to vaccine refusal. They watched as 100 years of progress in public health through vaccination was thrown out the window by the antivaxx movement.
They watched as doctors with absolutely no training or qualifications in infectious iseases were given the podium and the spotlight and proclaimed as experts. None of these doctors have done fellowships in ID. Some have little or no postgraduate medical education at all. Yet these FAKE experts have become household names while REAL experts are villified.
Probably the worst thing however is death threats. ID doctors now fear for their lives as FAKE experts suggest a Nuremberg - like trial is needed to punish them. Real ID doctors were replaced by fake experts on local health boards. There are efforts underway to criminalize vaccination.
I am not an Infectious Disease doctor but I understand the role of immunization and its incredible safety record. Quite simply, immunization is the single most effective public health strategy in human history, more lives saved and more misery averted than anything else humankind has ever done. For this, ID doctors now fear for their lives. What’s next, burning them at the stake?
Let me be clear, unless you are a fellowship trained and board certified infectious disease doctor, you are NOT an expert on COVID. They are the ONLY ones qualified as experts in infectious diseases.
Imagine having done the 10 years of training needed to become an ID doctor and seeing someone on TV posing as an expert who never even did an internship or residency. Imagine watching ignorant politicians with no medical knowledge at all opining about COVID as if they know anything about it. Imagine watching bottom dwelling doctors with no academic standing suddenly regarded as experts testifying before Congress and influencing policy. If that doesn’t demoralize someone, nothing will.
But ID is not dead. Viruses don’t listen to disinformation. The threats from Trump and Desantis won’t change the way infectious diseases behave. Eventually, as the toll of morbidity and mortality continues, people will begin to realize who was right.
Imagine thinking that renaming a novel nano-lipid encased gene therapy that doesn't even work for its supposed intended purpose to a "vaccine" would give it the properties of an actual vaccine and actually immunize people! That's the fraud that's been perpetrated on the entire world and has resulted in millions of deaths and probably tens of millions of maimings, all due to greed.