I Led Harvard Medical School, And I Fear What's to Come. My oped in today's New York Times. nytimes.com/2025/04/04/opini… via @NYTOpinion

Wow. New paper makes strong case that COVID booster mandates in young adults (as in many US universities), caused net harm, and must be judged unethical. This should not have happened, and we should insist on accountability. @KevinBardosh @TracyBethHoeg @VPrasadMDMPH 👇

As a long-standing diabetes researcher, I join my Harvard Public Health colleague in calling out the severe flaws in this CDC report claiming COVID increases diabetes risk in kids. Would never pass peer review in this form. CDC must do better.

Note- the President is on dexamethasone. Whether or not it’s medically justified, dex can and does cause mood swings, personality changes etc. This is a real matter of concern for the person in his role.

As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it.

Vaccinated people do not carry the virus. Retweet, please. And incorporate into public and private policy. Thank you.

This approach to suddenly cutting @NIH grant indirect costs will cause chaos and harm biomedical research and researchers in hospitals, schools and institutes nationwide. A sane government would never do this.

For a medical society, or a medical school, to prioritize "social justice" over medical expertise is to declare themselves unfit for their professional roles.

Says it all.

"Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate." Michael O. Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 2007.

What if I told you that I co-founded a startup in 1987 that obtained world-wide rights to GLP1 as a metabolic Rx, collaborated with Pfizer to show key activities, & abandoned it in 1990 when Pfizer lost interest? I tell the previously untold tale in an open access paper now up in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. Enjoy! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/9…

Pedagogical malpractice at @UCLA medical school. I was prepared to see some questionable things in the mandatory “Health Equity” course, but what I saw was truly outrageous, requiring serious inquiry by the dean and the accrediting body. @aaronsibarium

A hierarchy of thinking styles. On target.

Boris extends Chanukah greetings. Nicely done.

Every Single Cognitive Bias in One Infographic visualcapitalist.com/every-s…

In an editorial in @nytopinion today correctly criticizing the Trump admin attacks on universities, the editors make a remarkable admission: "many professors and university administrators acted in recent years as liberal ideologues rather than seekers of empirical truth. 1/

MIT bans diversity statements in faculty hiring. An influential decision. unherd.com/newsroom/mit-beco…

On this issue, @AndrewYang is behaving like a true leader, totally outclassing his opposition.

With this weighty decision by the Harvard Corporation behind us, attention must now turn to how President Gay and the Harvard Corporation address the unresolved issues before this great university, on whose faculty I've been for 45 years. They might consider the 5 points articulated by @sapinker in @BostonGlobe op-ed yesterday, with which, in broad outline, I concur. 1. Develop a clearly stated new policy on academic freedom, applied to all schools, addressing some of the ways HU failed to live up to these principles in recent years, using real cases to illustrate. 2. Adopt a new policy on institutional neutrality as relates to political and social issues, apart from those directly related to the function of the university. 3. Better define policies to rule out use of violence and intimidation within classrooms and public spaces, and establish meaningful consequences for their violation, with due process coupled with enhanced efficiency. 4. Conduct a serious, data-driven review of DEI policies and administration to clarify those elements that reflect initial and widely supported goals to appropriately promote and achieve diversity and inclusion along many dimensions, while identifying those areas where programs have failed to meet identified and valid objectives, or may have lost their way, by excessively promoting identarian thinking and action, and casting a pall on free expression. 5. Take a deep and serious look at the extent and consequences of diminished intellectual and political viewpoint diversity within the university, and what might be done to address this while fully respecting academic freedom. I stand ready to support President Gay in addressing these goals, and others that she may identify as being critical in the course of her efforts.

Over the edge. Down the rabbit hole. Completely insane. Would not have believed this possible until right now. Completely independent of politics, this must be seen as unacceptable in 2024.

Stanford student @juliaonatroika explains with great clarity why antisemitism on campus is not a surprise. @TheFP

What appears to be a major breakthrough leading to future treatment of Alzheimers disease by the lab of my @harvardmed colleague Bruce Yankner, whose @NIH funding has been stopped like all others at the school. Take note @DrJBhattacharya @BostonGlobe

The Idea Fueling the Student Protest Movement- terrific interview - "if you have an institution that’s teaching students, implicitly and sometimes explicitly, that America should never have been founded or that it’s fundamentally evil, or that Israel shouldn’t exist, and then students protest and say they believe what they’ve been taught, it’s tricky for colleges to make the case that these ideas were only meant for the classroom, not real life. This is true of a lot of radical politics in the academy." chronicle.com/article/the-id…

The just completed second medical briefing stuck me as embarrassing for the profession, and Dr Conley. It’s clear he is under great pressure to dissemble, but he must resist those pressures.

The AMA has gone mad: “When one of the most elite and powerful industry groups .. senses so much external pressure that it feels compelled to banish words and institute new, tortured phraseologies, .. no group is immune to what Orwell, .. called “the worst follies of orthodoxy.”

The ethical requirement for evidence-based medicine has been largely defeated by misguided activism. The medical profession and key professional orgs have been complicit or silent. This well reported piece tells the tale. ⁦@bariweiss⁩ commonsense.news/p/the-begin…

New faculty-led organization at Harvard will defend academic freedom. Proud to be a member of the timely new Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard! Fantastic colleagues! ⁦Critical mission! @cafharvard⁩ bostonglobe.com/2023/04/12/o…

Definition of a "liberated zone" @Yale. A public space illegally occupied by activists who prevent anyone who fails to swear loyalty to their ideology from entering. If you think this has anything to do with free speech or academic freedom, you are severely deluded.

Any qualified physician, if asked by a patient (VIP or otherwise) with active COVID (or many other illnesses) to go out in a car to do what POTUS did today would be obliged to refuse - and require patient to sign out “against medical advice”. This is obvious to all docs.

Proposal - include @BillGates on Federal Covid-19 response team.

This article on the evidence behind student mask mandates (or lack of it) by @davidzweig is science journalism of a kind we need more of. Serious, balanced, definitive, on a topic where most writing is shallow and seeks to please target audiences with predetermined conclusions.

Whatever you think of JP’s scholarship, the behavior of the university in response to such “activism” undermines a reputation for Cambridge U that took centuries to build, but may take much less time to diminish.

How to be successful in research: Treat everyone with respect. Listen. Be authentic. Ask for help. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know. Communicate. Put your mentees first. Don’t give up. Stay humble. Be honest with yourself. Give yourself time to think. cell.com/molecular-cell/full…

Academic writing explained. nitter.app/AcademicsSay/status/68…

My letter to Portland State in support of ⁦@peterboghossian⁩ .

The correction was an added parenthesis in a formula. The tweet with a photo, with no further explanation, is really deceptive, obviously unfair to Professor Ioannidis, and in my opinion, the author deserves an apology from @RetractionWatch.

One Author's Argument 'In Defense Of Looting' - Its getting harder and harder to believe this is the state of public discourse. npr.org/sections/codeswitch/…

"Academics have tried to silence debate on legitimate questions, including about Covid lockdowns, gender transition treatments and diversity, equity and inclusion".2/

Mayo Clinic medical college to doctor: Sit down and shut up. This is outrageous, and must be fought. I stand with @DrMJoyner ⁦@TheFIREorg⁩ ⁦against ⁦@MayoClinic⁩ thefire.org/news/mayo-clinic…

Of course, I *could* have said it, but by doing so I would have become a target for focused and dedicated opposition, which would have diminished or even ended my ability to serve the functions I was hired to pursue. That’s how it works. At the moment.

I Led Harvard Medical School. With Gay’s Resignation, the Corporation Must Rethink Its Approach to Governance. | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson thecrimson.com/article/2024/…

Insane, if reporting is accurate, which it likely is. Soon to be new NIH director must intervene to prevent such madness.

By capitulating to a mindless Twitter mob as it did in this sad case, MIT has severely diminished its institutional reputation. Reversal of the absurd award cancelation and high level and sincere apologies are required. @McCormickProf

If true, UCLA medical school requires a formal investigation by it's governing board, and it's accreditation by @AAMCtoday should be questioned for profoundly inadequate oversight of it's curriculum and pedagogy.

Disappointed at quality of your analysis.

Could not agree more with this statement by @MonicaGandhi9. I’ve been doing science for 45 years and find public/media use of “follow the science” to be shallow and counterproductive - deployed to suppress needed debate on issues that require it.

To claim that “these faces” contain information (apart from info about them specifically) allowing the viewer to interpret their values and life histories is, quite simply, sick. It’s at the core of racist thinking - and should be rejected by ethical people everywhere.

He had a point. And it resonated. I hope it could once again.

Mandatory DEI statements are ideological pledges of allegiance. Time to abandon them. @Harvard_Law Prof Randy Kennedy makes the case in @thecrimson series with @cafharvard thecrimson.com/column/counci…

Thanks for an outpouring of support for my piece @QuilletteM, seeking to stand strong for academic values against quick submission to anti-intellectual mob rule. Thanks to @jonkay for asking me to write it. And for the many who reached out in agreement with its thesis.

When I last lectured in ⁦@BrighamWomens⁩ Bornstein auditorium, walls were adorned with portraits of prior luminaries of medicine & surgery. Connecting to a glorious past. Now all gone. Hope everyone is happy. I’m not. (Neither were those I asked- afraid to say openly). Sad.

Just heard cable talking head say key for dems is to re-examine minority/Latino vote by country of origin and racial identity. My take- this reflects the PROBLEM with dem approach, not the solution! Identity politics will fail, and is morally defective.

Harvard's interim president Alan Garber just sent this message to the Harvard community, saying it also represented the views of the usually silent @Harvard Corporation. Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
 
A few groups purporting to speak on behalf of Harvard affiliates recently circulated a flagrantly antisemitic cartoon in a post on social media channels. The cartoon, included in a longer post, depicted what appeared to be an Arab man and a Black man with nooses around their necks. The nooses are held by a hand imprinted with the Star of David, and a dollar sign appears in the middle of the star. Online condemnation of this trope-filled image was swift, and Harvard promptly issued a statement condemning the posted cartoon. While the groups associated with the posting or sharing of the cartoon have since sought to distance themselves from it in various ways, the damage remains, and our condemnation stands.
 
Perpetuating vile and hateful antisemitic tropes, or otherwise engaging in inflammatory rhetoric or sharing images that demean people on the basis of their identity, is precisely the opposite of what this moment demands of us. As members of an academic community, we can and we will disagree, sometimes vehemently, on matters of public concern and controversy, including hotly contested issues relating to the war in Israel and Gaza, and the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it is grossly irresponsible and profoundly offensive when that disagreement devolves into forms of expression that demonize individuals because of their religion, race, nationality, or other aspects of their identity.
 
The members of the Corporation join me in unequivocally condemning the posting and sharing of the cartoon in question. The University will review the situation to better understand who was responsible for the posting and to determine what further steps are warranted.
 
Reckless provocation draws attention without advancing understanding. Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab members of our community have reported feeling targeted, rejected, and ostracized. The war and its effects on the lives of people directly affected by the conflict demand our profound concern and sympathy. We must approach one another with compassion, open minds, and mutual respect, our discourse grounded in facts and supported by reasoned argument.
 
Sincerely,
Alan M. Garber

He’s waiting.

Why have I not seen educational leaders at all levels speaking out forcefully about this tragedy? Surely it merits outrage by serious educational leaders (deans, presidents) who opine on so many other issues.

I am not impressed by the methodology of this study, it's conclusions, or the newspaper article reporting it. We deserve better from all involved.

An Open Letter to President Garber on Principles for Addressing our Campus Crisis. Over 170 Harvard faculty have signed since it began to circulate yesterday afternoon. tinyurl.com/principlesharvar…

Prominent medical journal, @TheLancet, should be embarrassed to have published this paper.

Follow and RT @AuschwitzMuseum

After listening to the full interview of Roland Fryer by @bariweiss, I now understand with much greater clarity how and why he was so horribly treated by the Harvard administration and many of his colleagues. As time passes, the judgment of history will be severe. @TheFP

When the @hoovlet controversy arose, I quickly read her book “T”, in an area of my expertise as an endocrinologist, and found it spectacular. After speaking with her, I wrote a detailed defense of her book on scientific and moral grounds & sent to her dept chair. 1/

Requiring an ideologically tinged (and fundamentally ambiguous) litmus test as precondition for presenting at a scientific meeting should outrage members of the academy in 2022. I stand with @JonHaidt and @NAChristakis @HdxAcademy

"A Harvard University survey last year found that only 33 percent of graduating seniors felt comfortable expressing their opinions about controversial topics, with moderate and conservative students being the most worried about ostracization."

Discussions like this have been virtually absent at other universities, despite being essential to fulfilling the mission of higher education, and grappling with difficult social and political issues. If @dartmouth can do it, why can’t others?

From all evidence, it is not clear that Trump is actually leading the government at this point. Action is needed to respond to this situation, which is unprecedented apart from a president who is acutely ill and incapacitated.

Not only is his piece *not anti -Semitic*, it’s not even remotely so, and anyone who makes that claim or supports it is either profoundly dense or malevolent, seeking to harm @VPrasadMDMPH because they disagree on other matters or just enjoy the sick pile on experience.

We lack credible evidence for benefits of masking kids aged 2-5. Despite what American Academy of Pediatrics says. @VPrasadMDMPH explains.

Chair of psychiatry at Tufts, past president American Psychiatric Association. 👇

Totally scientifically illiterate. And morally outrageous.

Many scientific and medical professional societies and academic journals have lost their way to non scientific activists/ ideologues and it’s really bad for science and medicine. This case in anthropology is especially insane.

Running this headline ⁦@nytimes⁩ while reporting on the extreme rarity of the reaction (1 per million or so) way down in the story seems like journalistic/editorial malpractice. nytimes.com/2020/12/25/healt…

There are major problems with health & the US healthcare system that need attention. But that RFK Jr is Secretary of HHS, overseeing M&M, NIH, CDC and FDA is a profound national embarrassment and threat to the nations health. Truly unbelievable.

Let's hear scientists with different views. Debate their ideas, not attack or try to silence them - as true today for COVID and other topics as it was in April 2020. Wouldn't change a word. ⁦@VPrasadMDMPH⁩ ⁦@statnews⁩ statnews.com/2020/04/27/hear…

Looking at the signatories, I believe Columbia will suffer no harm, and could benefit from their boycott.

Going over MA COVID data. For >70 age, case fatality rate 25%. For those <50, case fatality rate about 0.2% (100 fold lower). For those <40 = 0.08%. Stark age effect suggests weakness of focus on average Population CFR’s (or IFR) for COVID policy generation. Age highly relevant.

“ in the field of gender studies—and every field that gender studies touches, from philosophy to reproductive health—superstition is now firmly in the lead.” Scientists should read this provocative piece @QuilletteM

Sadly, the journalists @60Minutes largely ignored the fact that professor *Ehrlich* was monumentally wrong in his predictions of widespread famine in 1970s, made in his 1968 book The Population Bomb. That his new predictions of doom led this story is quite remarkable.

@MonicaGandhi9 has been a consistent voice of reason on the pandemic and it's most contentious issues. She has the training,academic accomplishment, values and integrity to do this as few can. Proud that she graduated from @harvardmed and has had great career @UCSF @Bob_Wachter

A school administration that allows this to transpire without appropriate consequences for the perpetrators consistent with previously articulated school policy is declaring itself unfit to lead. Period.

This proposed new @MIT Free Speech Statement is outstanding. It should be enthusiastically adopted and then serve as a model for other universities. @Harvard @HdxAcademy @JonHaidt

Star of David on a hand choking the third world. Posted today by "Harvard faculty and staff for justice in Palestine". No debate about this being anti-Semitic. @RabbiWolpe @boazbaraktcs @Harvard

1. Your tiki- torch comment is ignorant and offensive. I’m sure you realize the latter, though not the former. 2. My tweet received amazing positive response from many people across the spectrum. Others seemed to understand the adverse effects of such policies to diversity goals.

My first piece @QuilletteM

This is a major recognition from @nytopinion. Too bad they didn't recognize it earlier. Opinion | Colleges Are Under Attack. They Can Fight Back. - The New York Times @HdxAcademy @TheFIREorg @cafharvard @sapinker @JonHaidt

These Columbia deans should be terminated for cause, assuming this reporting is accurate. Hard to see any other outcome consistent with maintaining a reputation for institutional integrity. @aaronsibarium

Many don’t realize that, over recent decades, physicians with MD and DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) degrees have extremely similar training & accreditation procedures, and work together as colleagues to deliver modern medical care. If there is a problem with Dr Conley, look elsewhere.

Dr Paul Offit on the risk/benefits of new Omicron specific boosters for specific groups in the population. There is no one in medicine, virology & public health who thinks about and communicates as clearly on this subject. Worth a listen. ⁦@ZDoggMD⁩ piped.video/Q794f__8ZgI

Though you are an intelligent individual, @ewarren, this demagoguery is both false and insulting to the many people who work hard in the biopharma industry to develop therapies for unmet medical needs. Trump-like in its shallowness. You should be embarrassed.

What’s happening to journalism? Excellent piece by ⁦@bariweiss⁩, who has lived through it and is forging another path. bariweiss.substack.com/p/the…

When the history of this period is written, this "apology" by an outstanding reporter being pushed out will be seen as indicative of a profoundly immoral and dangerous turn in our culture, and specifically the formerly important @nytimes. I challenge anyone to defend this.

More than anything else, it was the explicit fear of speaking out against this by faculty at all levels that drove me to write this piece. I felt I had to do this, and that others more vulnerable to false criticism might then speak their minds. bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019…

Science journal circles the drain, experts say.

If a college president fails to respond with clarity to demands such as this by rejecting them with reasoned explanation, he/she has declared themselves unfit for the position. If they remain in the position, the college deserves an ignoble end to its existence.

My most cited paper, with then fellow Rex Ahima, demonstrated the fundamental role of leptin in signaling starvation to the brain. It was published in ⁦@nature⁩ in 1996. While cleaning old files today, found the initial rejection letter. #nevergiveup

President Trump requiring secret service to sit in car with him, to wave to crowd, while having active COVID, is an irrefutable sign of terminal moral decrepitude, or evidence of dex induced-psych symptoms, or more likely, both. Shocking.

Mayo Clinic argues it has legal right to punish professors for voicing unpopular opinions. Bottom line: @MayoClinic denies academic freedom for its faculty like @DrMJoyner. Hopefully, the court will disagree. thecollegefix.com/mayo-clini…

At reception for Association of American Physicians (AAP) meeting, it's president John Ioannidis asked me to deliver an address: Free Speech, Academic Freedom in Higher Education & Medicine: Challenges & Solutions. Exciting to share ideas with other leaders who seem to get it.

Give her a Nobel Prize: Great and impactful scientific research typically requires persistent effort against critics in the scientific community who fail to understand or accept the innovators insights and passion. Few have succeeded as dramatically as this case.

I haven't seen a rigorous scientific symposia w experts holding different views debating risks and benefits for health in broadest sense of policies like those described here ⁦@Georgetown⁩ & other unis. Someone should do this, no? ⁦@ashishkjha⁩ bariweiss.substack.com/p/uni…

This is a sad day for @BrownUniversity, and an indictment of the integrity of their academic and administrative leadership.

Here is a thread on Elizabeth Holmes and how she had a brief relationship to Harvard Medical School.1