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Oct 24, 2023
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Deutschmeister's avatar

My invitation to follow me around on campus and after hours to see for yourself what it is like for a typical college instructor, and among typical college kids, is open to you as well. You cite five schools out of thousands across the nation. Kindly show us that what happens there is representative of all those others elsewhere. Please tell us also what percentage of educators with "academic freedom" are among those who engage in the behavior you cite compared to those who do not. Also define exactly what you understand "academic freedom" to be relative to how typical faculty, staff, and administration carry it out in the college environment. I'd like to see how well informed you actually are, compared to what generalizations, stereotypes, and myths are circulating without adequate evidence to back them up.

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William's avatar

And change my opinions? Never.

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JB's avatar

I'm a retired physician.

Medical training is very individual. Students, residents and fellows spend a lot of time with attendings both individually and in very small groups. As a result, there are a tremendous number of people involved in medical education. Many of those experienced or retired physicians are also donating their time, rather than holding a paid position. Some are given an "adjunct" title in exchange for their time. There are definitely a few quacks who spread misinformation, but they don't really represent the medical school or the training hospital with which they are very loosely affiliated. The two Stanford doctors you may be thinking about actually belong to the Hoover Institute, not the medical school or hospital. There's also an MD at UCSF who's a contrarian adjunct claiming expertise in multiple fields unrelated to his formal training.

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Carolyn Phipps's avatar

Disinformationists? Who, what? I must have missed that.

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Kate Fall's avatar

You didn't. Dr. Oz is still out there selling snake oil with Harvard's approval. He's not alone. I think medical boards would be better for dealing with this than universities, but how these medical schools aren't embarrassed is anyone's guess. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/us/doctors-covid-vaccine-misinformation-invs/index.html

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Dan W's avatar

HarvardтАЩs approval? The dude got a bachelorтАЩs in biology from Harvard in 1982. ThatтАЩs supposed to constitute тАЬapprovalтАЭ?

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Kate Fall's avatar

When it comes to COVID disinformation? I don't think it's a bridge too far during a pandemic for an institution to say, "He may have learned medicine here, but we didn't teach THAT. It's wrong." But again, I think medical boards would have more power and influence here.

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Dan W's avatar

He didnтАЩt learn medicine there, though. He only for his undergraduate degree. Are colleges supposed to police every 22 year old theyтАЩve ever graduated?

I do agree that medical boards are the better option here, but if you want it to be schools it should at least be the school that gave him an MD.

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