We often ask the same question when we look back at the COVID years:
Why didn’t more doctors stand up? Why didn’t they speak out?
Reports coming out of Germany could offer part of the answer.
Doctors who issued mask or vaccine exemptions, questioned policies, or simply acted in what they believed to be their patients’ best interests were mercilessly defamed, hunted, existentially threatened, and punished with imprisonment by the state and its institutions.
I can see how silence starts to look less like indifference and more like self-preservation.
Surely, we can’t just “move on” from COVID without examining what happened to the doctor–patient relationship and medical autonomy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has recently highlighted the cases of persecuted German doctors, arguing that what happened there sends a warning signal to physicians everywhere about the cost of dissent.
The full article from Dr. Tess Laurie can be read here https://drtesslawrie.substack.com/p/politically-persecuted-doctors-in
Could this offer us some insight into why more doctors didn’t just refuse to comply?