Dr. Atul Gawande a surgeon and writer for The New Yorker, appeared on Tuesday’s The View to use his medical expertise to trash President Trump’s “reckless and dangerous” actions around his COVID-19 diagnosis. The hosts teed him up to attack Trump while failing to disclose that the doctor was already on their team and had endorsed Joe Biden last week in the magazine he writes for.
Every question the hosts gave was from a fearmongering and conspiracy-driven motive. Sara Haines asked Gadawe to condemn the “reckless” motorcade wave to supporters, which the doctor eagerly did while suggesting that the only precaution taken was mask-wearing, ignoring how Secret Service agents were actually in PPE too. Joy Behar even got the good doctor to suggest the president was only feeling well because he was high on drugs and his medical team was concealing his severe condition:
BEHAR: So, doctor, Trump says he hasn't felt this good in 20 years. Wow. But we know that he's on a cocktail of drugs and a steroid called dexamethasone. Some say that can cause you to feel really great and grandiose. Are we witnessing an episode where he thinks he's capable of doing anything? I'm macho and can do anything. Are you worried about that particular form of behavior in the President of the United States, the leader of the free world?
GAWANDE: When I saw the tweet, I had to chuckle. It's the best I felt in 20 years. It's such classic steroid euphoria. It's a known side effect of getting high dose steroids, you feel incredibly good suddenly for a period of time. Yes, that is part of the picture that you're seeing when he describes that. That's not where he is with the virus. Understand that when you get the cocktail of drugs he's taking, it's because he's entered that minority group who have severe coronavirus disease. What does that mean? That means that your oxygen level has fallen to below normal, below 94%, or you have an abnormal chest x-ray which the doctor's press conference indicated he did. Those are -- that is on the 7.5% of people over 65 who get this condition. That is a group that have almost a 20% risk of death. That's exactly why he's getting these treatments. Whatever spin the doctor or the president is trying to put on it, it is an indication of how far he is. Now the second thing I want to add is though, he's stable. The next stages where you're critical and in the ICU. He's not at that stage. 65% of people who are in his stage never advance that far. I'm happy he's stable and showing signs he may be on the mend but it's still too early to know.
Sunny Hostin also teed him up to bash the President’s medical team for lying to the public:
HOSTIN: Now, doctor, we've heard what some would say are conflicting accounts from Trump's White House doctors, Sean Conley, about the president's diagnosis, treatment and condition. It has created confusion on the timeline of when President Trump was diagnosed with COVID. They also tried to conceal that he was experiencing serious symptoms and had to be on supplemental oxygen. Throughout this pandemic we have looked to doctors and scientists to provide accurate information. But now many Americans feel they cannot even trust doctors to be truthful. How does this make you feel?
GAWANDE: Honestly I felt for those doctors lined up in front of the microphone needing to speak about their patient. Our job, as a doctor, is to -- we represent the patient. 100%. Our job is not to anybody else. But, you know, that patient is asking us to lie to the public. You know, you could see on their faces that they were being asked to not tell the truth. It is not what we, as physicians, should be doing. I think we have to walk that fine line. Presidential medicine is abnormal medicine. There is a need for the public to know what's going on, but it should not -- your protection of your patient should never go as far as to mislead others about the condition.
Hostin worries that Americans can’t trust doctors anymore, and so she brings on a partisan medical doctor to combat this dilemma? The View hosts didn't mention how Gawande endorsed Biden for president, called the Republican Convention an “autocracy,” touted ex-WH aide Olivia Troye, and sent many other tweets blaming Trump for coronavirus deaths.
Just yesterday ABC and NBC also failed to disclose that their own Trump-trashing medical guest called for Trump to resign on his social media. In addition, NBC’s medical expert Vin Gupta actually advises Biden campaign. If Americans have a hard time figuring out who to trust anymore, the media’s choice of supposedly apolitical medical experts they bring on to criticize the president might have something to do with it.
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