“We Have to Acknowledge That We Have Not Been Trustworthy”

“Countering Medical Misinformation”

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) created an initiative through the ABIM Foundation called Building Trust which aims to build trust in healthcare. On Thursday, January 19, the organization hosted a panel on “Countering Misinformation”. The registry link was open for anyone to sign up, and the event was publicized on the social media accounts of ABIM and the participants prior to the event.

Conflicts and Questions:

1. The ABIM Foundation hosted Dr. Vineet Arora, Dean for Medical Education, UChicago, as guest speaker to discuss a “science communication” program for medical students. Dr. Arora gave thanks to the CDC for recent funding approval for the program. The CDC is funding messaging that soft-pedals what may be harms caused by mRNA vaccines that the CDC itself approved, recommended, pushed, and mandated.
2. Dr. Vineet Arora appears on the ABIM Board of Directors, although that information was not disclosed at the panel, in the advertisement for the event, or on Dr. Arora’s personal LinkTree.
   
3. The name of the program that received a grant renewal from the CDC is not disclosed in the panel, making it difficult to find the grant and learn its details.

The purpose of the taxpayer-funded CDC is to control disease, not tell Americans how to think about healthcare or specific medical interventions.

Given that the event was open to the public, the flippancy of some of the statements made throughout the webinar was surprising. 

The event was recorded, and there were approximately 70 people in the zoom.

The Participants:

Pamela Browner White is the Senior Vice President of Communications & Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation. The webinar was hosted by the ABIM Foundation.

Dr. Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP is a Dean for Medical Education at the University of Chicago. She and her students recently were involved with creating a “science communications course (funded by Association of American Medical Colleges [AAMC] through a CDC grant) that is teaching enrollees how to harness the power of storytelling to decrease the spread of misinformation.” Dr. Arora is also a member of IMPACT, a non-profit public health advocacy organization that launched in 2020 and created infographics such as this:

Along with Ms. White and Dr. Arora were two of Dr. Arora’s medical students from UChicago who help her with social media infographics and campaigns and Daniel Wolfson, Executive Vice President & COO of the ABIM Foundation.

The Clips

The following clips come from the “Counteracting Medical Misinformation” webinar, put together by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, with Dr. Vineet Arora, who runs a program for combatting medical misinformation, funded by the CDC.

Clip 1 – “How are we doing?”

Ms. Pamela Browner White: 

• “How do you think this misinformation, disinformation, medical myths, whatever you want to call it? How do you think you’re doing? How do you think we’re doing as a community?”

Dr. Arora:

• “Well, I should start by saying, you know, you know, education is one tool, right? There are many other tools out there. And is this going to be the only tool that battles disinformation? Absolutely not.”
• “And so I would say this (science communication program) is a way to empower clinicians and what we have seen, actually, in this, my shout out to the AAMC and the CDC, which funds our work now.”
• “It’s hard to talk about vaccines… and I may not, I may not get to yes that day, but maybe in a few months, I’ll see that I get to a yes”
• “So the key is to empower our frontline clinicians to do better, while we also pull other levers, you know”
• “And what’s been interesting is that it’s not just so the infographic as a tool, but sort of it’s really the art of reaching people using plain language.”

Clip 2- “My friend had a heart attack and he just had the vaccine” 

Dr. Arora: 

“In this case, it’s let’s say you’re worried about COVID and heart attacks, right? It, you know, and then you’re like, Well, I, you know, I heard this and my friend had a heart attack, and he just had the vaccine. So then you’re like, Okay, I now understand where you’re coming from. So now, let me explain that heart attacks have been happening for a long time. And this is why this has happened.”

• And it’s really the “why”. He can get to the why people will then believe it, and then he can actually also debunk it to somebody else, right?
• And so that’s really the goal is to not just say the vaccine is safe, you know, right?

Clip 3: “Vaccine Confidence, in General, is Going Down” 

Dr. Arora:

• “Well, I will start and just they say briefly, we teach in the course, as our students will attest to that science is changing, it is evolving. And that’s one of the reasons for the distrust. And so it’s important to list your references to acknowledge that based on the facts that we know now, this is the case and that way. Yeah, I mean, you know, there’s always this concept of the fact that something tomorrow could change the way we think today. But but we’re giving you the best information that we have today.”
• “And then around the vaccines… vaccine confidence as in general is going down, in part because of the issues with the “infodemic” around COVID.”
• “And this is what we, that’s why education is powerful, because it’s about teaching techniques, and then you can apply those techniques multiple times over. So we just got our, you know, we’re working on getting our grant renewed from AAMC to now take this work to residents who are working in the community, to residents from all fields.”

Clip 4: “We Have to Acknowledge that we Have Not Been Trustworthy”

Daniel Wolfson:

• “How do you field test some of your messages with specific populations?”

Dr. Arora: 

• “I, you know, we have to acknowledge that we have not been trustworthy. You know, that’s just we have to put that out there. And there are going to be groups that have a high distrust of the healthcare system.”
• “You know, I watched an ethics seminar yesterday, very powerful. I re-watched, Dr. Susan Moore’s call for help. While she was hospitalized at a hospital, a black woman physician, it was heartbreaking, you know, she went on to die. And she said, like, this is how black people die. It was more horrific. And, we need to come to terms with the fact that we need to do better, you know.”
• “I think that we have to leave with that acknowledgment, you know, that things have not gone well. And so when I see my patients in the hospital, and they are there for a diabetic foot amputation, right, like, what are the things that led to that?”
• “In the old days, we might say, Oh, they were non-compliant. That’s not gonna fly anymore. Like, that’s not that, you know, what have we done to fail that patient, right, so that they are there, and this is where we’ve come? And so I think we need to recognize that we need to earn the trust.”
• “You know, you know, I know our students learn a lot about health equity and anti-racism as well.”

Naomi  Tesema (student)

• “If you’re trying to reach out to a certain community to make sure that you have a voice of the community member, be involved in your messaging.”

This is the Organization that is Attempting to Destroy Dr. McCullough’s Career

According to the description of the panel, the CDC is funding an initiative for “science communication” that involves Dr. Arora and her students. Dr. Arora is a Member of the Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine. DailyClout reported here on the intention of the ABIM to strip Dr. Peter McCullough’s credentials, in an effort to “combat misinformation” as defined by the ABIM.

The mission statement of the ABIM states that it is an “independent evaluation organization”, whose mission is to “enhance the quality of health care by certifying internists and subspecialists who demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and attitude essential for excellent patient care”.

The exact opposite appears to be the case.

This is a developing story.

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Etana Hecht is an American-Israeli investigative journalist, and Associate Editor at DailyClout. She lives in Israel with her husband and three kids. Etana’s articles can all be found at clownworldhonk.com

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