Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS) Counters New England Journal's Leap into Electoral Politics

TUCSON, Ariz., Oct. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), one of the world's most respected medical journals, has weighed in on a Presidential candidate for the first time in its 208-year history. It is also only the fifth time that all of its editors, now 34 of them, have signed an editorial, according to the Washington Post.

The editorial blames the Administration for failing to take China's totalitarian actions that would have allegedly limited spread and prevented many of the 211,000 American deaths from COVID-19. While not explicitly endorsing Joe Biden, NEJM editors clearly call for voting out current officials.

The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS) issued a statement in response, particularly to the accusations that policy was being set by "charlatans," based on "outright lies." AAPS clarified that longstanding appointees have been responsible for errors, not elected officials.

"Who determines policy, such as the one that delayed testing? Unnamed officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which at first forbade testing by any means other than the CDC's test kits, which proved defective. What effect will an election have on career bureaucrats in these agencies? Little to none. Democrats have said nothing to criticize them?apparently, they are 'the scientists'....

"What are the outright lies? The World Health Organization (WHO) relied on China, which at first claimed that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. NEJM does not criticize China, but relies on its mortality statistics....

"NEJM blames the poor performance by the U.S....on late, ineffective, and inconsistent isolation measures, and failure to wear masks. There is no evidence-based medicine for lockdowns, the course of the epidemic being about the same in nations with and without severe restrictions on liberty. Even the WHO has now recognized the disastrous effects of the severe lockdowns that NEJM praises. There is no evidence showing the effectiveness of masks as used by the public; cloth masks might even increase the risk of infection....

"The biggest lie is the outright lie of omission: denying or ignoring evidence that COVID-19 can be successfully prevented and treated with affordable, available drugs and other measures....

"Denying early treatment with HCQ [hydroxychloroquine] may be responsible for as many as 100,000 needless American deaths, stated epidemiologist Harvey Risch of the Yale School of Public Health.

"There has not been a 'leadership vacuum,' as the NEJM editors claim, but rather aggressive obstruction of the efforts of physicians and scientists to protect and treat their patients, to serve a political and ideological agenda or promote the financial benefit of entrenched special interests.

"Those who have been complicit in this war against effective early treatment should answer for why they impeded care."

Journals often refrain from political statements in an effort "to preserve the perception of neutrality and credibility behind the peer-reviewed science the journal publishes," writes the Washington Post.

"This editorial demolishes that perception," states AAPS executive director Jane M. Orient, M.D.

AAPS has represented physicians of all specialties in all states since 1943. The AAPS motto is omnia pro aegroto, meaning everything for the patient.

SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)