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 n editor at the
New England Journal of Medicine has apologized for identifying
a book reviewer who is not a
physician
as an "M.D."
"We regret the error," deputy editor Edward Campion told NRO on
Thursday. "A correction will be printed as soon as we can do it."
As NRO
reported yesterday, Daniel M. Fox attacked Sally Satel's new
book, PC,
M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine,
on the journal's pages. Fox labels Satel "an unreliable guide" and
says she "invents data." Fox himself is identified as an "M.D.,"
but he does not hold any kind of medical degree.
"This mistake is just a clerical error, and the fault is ours rather
than Fox's," explained Campion.
Campion would not promise to publish a brief letter Satel has written
in response to the Fox review.
As of this morning, the book review on the NEJM website still
listed Fox as an "M.D." (
Read the full review.)
Because there is no guarantee Satel's letter will ever be published
in the NEJM, even though she has already submitted it, we
publish it here in its entirety.
February
13, 2001
To the Editor:
Daniel Fox's review of my book PC, M.D. How Political Correctness
is Corrupting Medicine (February 8) contains a number of misleading
and erroneous statements. In interest of space, I will comment
on a few.
Fox faults me for "exaggerating the influence" of politically
correct medicine, asserting that the PC philosophy has "little
discernible influence on public health practitioners." But this
simply dismisses out of hand the seven chapters of detailed evidence showing how
political correctness is indeed corrupting American medicine. Fox
himself notes that "nurses who embrace New Age rhetoric and alternative
therapies embarrass many nursing leaders." The indignant reaction
of responsible professionals does not show the harm is negligible;
it attests to its seriousness and growing influence.
Fox also claims that I "overstate" the harms of PC medicine in
the field of public heath, this time noting that courts are now
"increasingly skeptical of persons who, during therapy recover
memories of sexual and physical abuse." Here too, the skepticism
of the courts is not evidence of my overstating the case against PC
but reason to be doubly concerned when, despite the well-founded
skepticism of judges and juries, federal funds are spent on so-called
trauma therapy — a veritable set-up for engendering more
false memories — is administered to vulnerable patients.
Other criticisms are downright puzzling. For example, Fox says
I omit "pertinent information that would weaken [my] case" when
I describe how politically correct nursing in the United Kingdom had
brought about the closing of all traditional nursing schools by
1995 and how "patient care suffered as a result" but that I then
fail to point out that "nursing education in Britain has [recently]
been integrated in higher education." How would supplying this "omitted"
information have weakened my contention that PC had caused the
demise of traditional training?
In
his final and most reckless remark, Fox says that "Satel invents
data" in reporting that "California approved legislation requiring
their public medical schools to increase the number of training
slots for primary care physicians and to decrease slots for specialists."
"Not so," says Fox. "[I]n 1993 the California legislature twice
passed and Governor Wilson twice vetoed bills to achieve this
purpose." It's true that Wilson vetoed the bills giving as his
reasons that the medical schools had already reformed their practice in
ways that made the legislation unnecessary. But to call my reporting
what the California legislature did "inventing data," is downright
irresponsible. "Inventing" data is a serious charge and Fox points
to no manufacturing of statistics, numbers, or study findings.
Some readers of The New England Journal of Medicine will
surely have genuine disagreements with me, but I am certain they
would want them debated with a decent regard for critical reason
and elementary fairness.
Sally Satel, M.D.
Editor's
note: For more about PC, M.D. , read read
NRO's interview with Sally Satel.
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