Public Health Goes Woke on Counting Deaths

Woke ideology isn’t corrupting just our children’s education and our political discourse. Just as troubling is its destructive impact on scientific inquiry — the foundation of progress in virtually every field of life. In medical research in particular, woke ideology has become so dominant that honest and accurate inquiry is disappearing altogether. This doesn’t bode well for patient health or public policy.

A case in point is a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that appears to relay some troubling statistics. The authors report that between 1999 and 2020, “disproportionately higher mortality rates in Black males and females resulted in 997,623 and 628,464 excess deaths, respectively, representing a loss of more than 80 million years of life.” Dig a little deeper, and the authors identify “structural racism, unmet social needs, and systemic bias as root causes.” The results of the “study” were uncritically parroted by CBS and ABC, among others. The ironically named Scientific American meanwhile labeled the results a “call to action” for sweeping social and political changes.

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About the Author

Ian Kingsbury

Ian Kingsbury is the director of research at Do No Harm, a health-care-advocacy organization.

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Woke ideology isn’t corrupting just our children’s education and our political discourse. Just as troubling is its destructive impact on scientific inquiry — the foundation of progress in virtually every field of life. In medical research in particular, woke ideology has become so dominant that honest and accurate inquiry is disappearing altogether. This doesn’t bode well for patient health or public policy.

A case in point is a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that appears to relay some troubling statistics. The authors report that between 1999 and 2020, “disproportionately higher mortality rates in Black males and females resulted in 997,623 and 628,464 excess deaths, respectively, representing a loss of more than 80 million years of life.” Dig a little deeper, and the authors identify “structural racism, unmet social needs, and systemic bias as root causes.” The results of the “study” were uncritically parroted by CBS and ABC, among others. The ironically named Scientific American meanwhile labeled the results a “call to action” for sweeping social and political changes.