Giving You an Out

Dear Reader:

Thank you for being a MedEdge subscriber. Truly, it means more to me than you know.

If you caught the last few editions of the newsletter, you know that I’ve taken a keen interest in medical mis/disinformation. I sent an overview of the topic, a piece on the IKEA Effect, and in the most recent issue, I dug a bit deeper into the non-neutrality of search engines.

In my first newsletter of 2025, I shared a list of questions I hoped to explore further, all generally connected to the use and misuse of medical information.

I was following my curiosity and hoping you’d go along for the ride.

But then Monday, 1/20/25 came and brought with it a shocking level of science denialism and censorship:

• In the Inaugural Address and an Executive Order, the President rejected established science, insisting that there are only 2 “genders”, male and female. Intersex, trans, and non-binary people no longer exist, as a matter of policy.

• The President withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization

• The new administration acted swiftly to remove a government website offering reproductive health information. The archived site is still available here.

• On Tuesday, 1/21, the Trump administration ordered federal health agencies, such as the CDC, FDA, and NIH, to halt all external communications

New Purpose

My curiosity remains, but it is now propelled by a sense of responsibility and purpose.

As a member of the medical community, I feel called to protect medical science from these attacks.

As a medical educator, I feel obligated to find ways to share high-quality medical information in a way that breaks through.

I am committed to this new purpose, and will use this newsletter to share my progress as I try to expose the intent, strategy, and tactics behind medical disinformation, and trace medical misinformation from its roots to its impact.

But you didn’t sign up for that.

You signed up for a newsletter about medical education, written by a sometimes-goofy always-nerdy version of me.

So I’m giving you an out. If this new direction isn’t your thing, hit the button to unsubscribe. No hard feelings, I promise.

New Expectations

If you’re still with me, I want to make sure you know what you’re in for.

I’m not a journalist. Nor am I a sociologist, detective, or expert on any of this.

Every week I’ll be sending something akin to ‘dispatches from the front’ - but where the front is just me sitting on a couch reading or walking my dog while listening to podcasts.

I’ll be looking for examples of mis/disinformation or propaganda in action (sadly, I don’t think I’ll have to look too hard) and talking to people who know much more about these topics than I do.

Things are going to get personal. And political - though I’ll try to refrain from pure partisanship.

We’re going to touch on topics that you avoid at family meals: religion, money, relatives on Facebook.

I will probably make mistakes. But I promise to publish a full correction when I do.

Now, here’s another chance to jump ship:

If you’re still with me after all that, welcome aboard. It’s going to get bumpy.

See you on Sunday,

Ky