Dr. Goldfarb is back, claiming that physicians aren't ready forr a pandemic because we are too busy learning about injustices that directly affect our patients' health and outcomes (and have ESPECIALLY been apparent during this pandemic). #medtwitter https://www.wsj.com/articles/med-school-needs-an-overhaul-11586818394?redirect=amp

In this piece, Dr. Goldfarb creates another false dichotomy - claiming that because we learn about the social determinants of health and how injustices like racism affect health, we aren't learning science. WRONG. Medical school teaches science and understanding patient context.

I agree that we should learn more about how randomized controlled trials are conducted -- I actually did learn some of this in medical school. @VPrasadMDMPH has written about trimming out scientific minutiae to improve statistics training. #medtwitter

But Dr. Goldfarb gets a lot wrong and is giving an inaccurate view of medical education to the public - ventilator management is a difficult topic, something learned throughout medical school, residency, and for some, fellowship. #MedTwitter

Medical students won't be leading pandemic response -- they learn principles of epidemiology and physiology, but the actual planning happens at the higher level. For instance, Stanford had a pandemic response team ready to go. We were ready. #medtwitter

IN FACT, this pandemic has shown that injustices such as racism, homelessness, lack of access to medical care have contributed to poor #COVID19 outcomes. So, Dr. Goldfarb, we find that social determinants of health are incredibly important to pandemic response. #medtwitter

Also I will add that I love this thread by @londyloo. https://twitter.com/londyloo/status/1250077626842198016?s=20

@EricTopol had a fantastic response to his last awful take. Looking forward to reading another take down.