Page 27 - WCMS4Q21

The following letter was sent by the Washtenaw County Medical Society Executive Council to the Michigan State Medical Society Boatd of Directors to go on record regarding what it viewed as the inadequate efforts made at the state level to be visible and vocal in promoting vaccination and preventive measures to the public.
Dear MSMS Board of Directors,
The Executive Council of the Washtenaw County Medical Society addresses this message to you in the hope that MSMS will be more assertive in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the delta variant brings a fourth surge in illness burden and hospitalizations across the state.
The perceived lack of an assertive pandemic response by organized medicine is apparent to more than us. We have never seen U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell as angry with organized medicine as she was at the WCMS Legislative Committee meeting on September 13, 2021, when she said that she believes MSMS should be more assertive and take a prominent leadership role in promoting mandatory vaccinations. We agree, es-pecially since major healthcare organizations (Henry Ford, Spectrum, Trinity, Beaumont, Ascension, and Michigan Medicine) are mandating vaccinations for their employees, and many other businesses are doing likewise. The AMA and many other medical societies, including ACS, ACP, AAFP, and AAP, also directly support vaccine mandates – but not MSMS as an entity.
To be fair, some statements have been made. On July 27 MSMS said: “As we have throughout this pan-demic, Michigan physicians stand with our colleagues throughout our state’s health and hospital systems, and we support their efforts to protect their staff and patients by requiring health system staff to be vac-cinated.”
On 8/26/20201, there was an op ed by Melanie Menary MD in the Detroit News 8 offering good advice to parents in favor of vaccinations and universal masking. At the end of the column, she is identified as a member of the MSMS Board of Directors.
Ben Louagie called this to our attention and also supplied the following MSMS statements (without sup-plying the content):
1) 8/30/2021 Michigan State Medical Society, Physicians Urge Public to Return to Wearing Masks In-doors as COVID Cases Surge Across the State
2) 9/2/2021 Michigan State Medical Society and Ingham County Medical Society Praise County Health Department’s Decision Mandating Masks in Schools
3) 9/7/2021 Michigan State Medical Society and Wayne County Medical Society of Southeast Michi-gan Praise Wayne County Health Department’s Decision Mandating Masks in Schools
4) 9/8/2021 Michigan State Medical Society and Jackson County Medical Society Praise Jackson Pub-lic Schools Decision Mandating Masks in Schools
We think these actions are helpful, but insufficient. They are too narrowly focused on what some physi-cians or others are doing. Saying you support someone else’s effort Is not the same as taking a strong posi-tion and publicizing it to the profession and to the public. We would argue that the assertive statement MSMS should have made, MSMS strongly supports mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 (with limited exceptions) and universal masking in accordance with CDC guidelines.
In addition, we are also appalled at the blatant falsehoods being spread by certain physicians, and call your attention to the statement by the Federation of State Medical Boards (supported by ABIM, ABP and ABFM), on dissemination of misinformation asserting that this kind of unprofessional physician (mis)behavior may (and should) lead to Board of Medicine sanctions:
https://www.fsmb.org/advocacy/news-releases/fsmb-spreading-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-may-put-medical- license-at-risk/. A letter to LARA is in order in support of this policy.
In summary, we ask the MSMS Board to more visibly and assertively:
(1) take a prominent stand in favor of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations (with legitimate medical excep-tions) and in support of masking requirements in schools and indoor gatherings;
(2) publicly condemn attempts by any physician who, through social media or other public pronounce-ments, spreads false and/or misleading information that misrepresents or contradicts current well-established scientific evidence about vaccinations, masking, or ineffective treatments; and
(3) publicly decry any attacks on state and county public health officials, in the form of harassment, threats, hate mail or “doxing,” for carrying out their obligation to reduce the spread of COVID disease us-ing well-accepted epidemiological mitigation methods.
Volume 73 • Number 4 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN 27