My friends. 

People should NOT be indiscriminately tested for testosterone levels unless they have overt symptoms and are evaluated by a qualified clinician first. 

“Peptides” have no reliable laboratory or clinical evidence for benefit in human conditions.

And now military service members will be screened for testosterone levels starting at age 30 and an FDA committee has recommended that compounding pharmacies should be allowed to create peptide preparations for clinical use.

The CDC website now includes verbiage suggesting that vaccines may cause autism, that the data is ‘unclear’, when myriad high quality studies prove soundly that they do not.  The single paper published in The Lancet decades ago claiming the relationship was retracted when found to be falsified, and the physician author sanctioned by his professional governing body.

These decisions and many others fly flagrantly in the face of decades of rigorous academic study and painstaking medical and public health stewardship on the part of researchers, educators, and clinicians who have dedicated their lives to understanding the science of medicine and collaborating to apply it for societal good through thoughtful, responsible, and accountable public health policy.  The United States has led the world in that time with breakthroughs in basic bench science, revolutionary pharmaceutical discovery and development, and technical surgical advancements.  Diagnostic and therapeutic innovations were vigorously tested and monitored for safety, efficacy, and harm.  We have rightly enjoyed international regard and status as a nation where science is respected and done with integrity. 

No more.

Including the one physician whose ethics and clinical credibility were also roundly denounced by his former academic colleagues, the men in charge of the governmental health and medicine decisions above are about as far from responsible and accountable public policy stewards as we have ever seen in the posts they occupy.  I cannot state strongly enough what a national disgrace this is.  The least qualified and competent people have been elevated to the highest positions of power and authority in our federal government.  Their actions exemplify hubris, ignorance, arrogance, and an utter lack of integrity or intellectual humility.  They are exactly the opposite of leaders we need at the front of public health policy and practices that affect the health and well-being of our military service members and population.

It absolutely exacerbates the situation that our healthcare system is so profoundly broken that most people don’t have enough of a relationship with their primary care physician (if they even have one designated at all) to get qualified, thoughtful, caring, and informed advice about all of the confusing and conflicting information they encounter on every media platform.

This post is a week late for various reasons (jury duty [fascinating—more on that soon!] and travel).  I had intended to introduce two clinicians whom I strongly recommend to follow for reliable, evidence-based medical information, as well as education on how to think for ourselves when we encounter such information, how to vet it effectively.  But apparently I had to rant first.  Introductions forthcoming. Thank you for your indulgence.

OH YES, the doctors are angry. 
But we have not lost hope. 
Far from it.
We persist and resist. 

We lead.

Onward, friends. We’ got this.