A group of “public health practitioners, educators, students, advocates, and allies” has written an open letter demanding that the American Public Health Association (APHA) cancel an eminent speaker on public health, Dr Leanna Wen.
As they explain:
Currently, Dr. Wen is slated to be a speaker presenting on “Backlash,” [!] and particularly regarding misinformation. We are demanding our colleagues and fellow leaders in public health to reconsider and replace Dr. Wen with someone whose work is consistent with anti-racist, anti-eugenicist public health practices and community health.
Later we have:
The 2022 keynote is an opportunity for APHA, the foremost and largest public health organization in the United States, to reject the history of paternalism, eugenics, and racism and to begin rebuilding a relationship with the public we serve.
I can’t see any evidence in the letter that Dr Wen is lacking in her opposition to eugenics, or is in any way racist. But we do hear that Dr Wen has some shocking views:
Dr. Wen has promoted unscientific, unsafe, ableist, fatphobic, and unethical practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s go through these one by one, by following the supporting links given in the letter.
Unscientific
The evidence for “unscientific” is the following Tween by Dr Wen:
For those who don’t agree that the vaccinated can return to pre-pandemic normal, I ask: What should we all do? Perpetual masking? Forever not dining out, avoiding large weddings & indoor gatherings, etc? Virtually everything has risk, and zero covid is not a viable strategy.
Unsafe
This is a link to Dr Wen’s Washington Post opinion piece A new Covid wave may be coming. Most Americans shouldn’t worry:
In the coming weeks, the United States could see another wave of covid-19 infections driven by a subvariant of the omicron strain, known as BA.2. While the federal government needs to do much more to prepare for this potential surge, most Americans should not be worried.
Ableist
This is from a link to an article quoting Wen in Politico.
I am only guessing, but perhaps the ableist sentiment is in these passages:
Critics argue this isn’t her call [to urge vaccinated people to return to normal]. People who are immunocompromised, particularly, say that increasingly relaxed public health guidance leaves their safety out of the equation — and they could still die from this virus.
“It’s true,” Wen told Pulse. “I think it could both be true that the majority of individuals, if they are vaccinated and boosted, should be able to resume pre-pandemic normal, [and] we have to do a lot more when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable,” including more accessible treatment.
Fatphobic
The evidence for Wen’s fatphobia is her Tweet to Crispy Kreme:
Hey @krispykreme, I love that you want to thank people for getting the #covid19 #vaccine! Every incentive helps & free donuts may help move the needle.
However, donuts are a treat that’s not good for health if eaten every day.
Here’s my suggestion for what to do instead: (1/4)
As Vinay Prasad puts it, through barely controlled laughter:
So her tweet, that they disagree with, and these are public health experts, is that eating Krispy Creme donut is not healthy if you do it every day.
Unethical
The authors of the letter appear to believe that advocating any easing of precautions is, in itself, an unethical practice, to the point that no further discussion is necessary. Here is the Tweet given as evidence for Wen’s unethical practices:
NEW: The just-released CDC guidance that eases #covid19 precautions in schools has it mostly right.
At this point, the emphasis must shift from universal mandates to individual decisions to minimize the disruption of in-person learning.
Do you have any other insults to deploy from your mobbing arsenal?
To count that up, the letter implies that Dr Wen’s views are in some sense:
- eugenicist and
- racist,
and says that she supports practices that are:
- unscientific,
- unsafe,
- ableist,
- fatphobic, and
- unethical.
Apart from the absolute absurdity of the fatphobia case, the whole evidence for the last list appears to be that she agrees with the CDC, and many other public health bodies across the world, that the benefits outweigh the risks for a careful relaxation of Covid restrictions. Yes, that’s it. That’s how you know your views are:
- unscientific,
- unsafe,
- ableist and
- unethical.
And maybe you’re also a racist and eugenicist. We can only speculate.