A short response to the editorial from the Minneapolis Star Tribune published as an op-ed on April 11 (“Is Hydroxychloroquine a ‘Game Changer?’”). The final paragraph of this piece begins with “We hope Mr. Trump is proven right about hydroxychloroquine.”
Stop, right there! There is a fundamental risk to him having been proven right because he speaks from ignorance.
Suddenly then, President Donald Trump becomes the wise sage of popular medicine? Already he is assumed by many misguided folks to be the clairvoyant of climate change denial, the prophet of environmental pillage and the wizard of multilateral withdrawal. What follows is that he has sewn the seeds of mistrust in the broad spectrum of our scientific community. Why should medicine have an exemption?
I, too, hope he’s right. But I know that a broken clock is right twice a day. So may I offer some advice to the man who is as likely to take mine as anyone else’s? Mr. Trump, speak with as much executive authority as you like, and I will hold my tongue. But in matters of medicine, please keep your mouth shut.
MICHAEL HEPLER-SMITH, M.D.
Hampton
Note from KBJ: Stop projecting your ignorance onto President Trump, Michael.
