Talk:Marty Makary

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Science Based Medicine source

• [1] Jonathan Howard calls out Makary and says he should retract his false claims. --Hob Gadling (talk) 10:30, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

  Again. [2] --Hob Gadling (talk) 09:52, 5 December 2021 (UTC)

Section on COVID-19 views

A couple of editors have been trying to add a paragraph on Makary's COVID-19 views, but have been reverted a few times by 100.16.169.167 who has raised a few different criticisms. Here is the most recent version of the paragraph:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Makary has been a critic of COVID-19 mitigation policies that led to shutdowns of businesses and schools as well as non-targeted efforts to mandate vaccination. He describes his views as "different from the 'standard party line'". Makary was an early supporter of universal masking, writing a New York Times op-ed in May 2020 in which he suggested it would enable safe reopening of businesses and schools. When COVID-19 vaccines became available, Makary argued in a February 2021 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that the United States would achieve herd immunity for COVID-19 around April 2021, and later criticized Anthony Fauci for predicting that 75-80% vaccination rates would be required for herd immunity. This prediction later proved to be incorrect, in part due to the rise of the Delta variant. Makary considers himself pro-vaccine, but has also criticized vaccination mandates for populations other than healthcare workers, highlighting the risk of myocarditis in young male vaccine recipients as a reason to exercise caution.

References

Here are some objections that 100.16.169.167 has raised to this or previous versions of this paragraph (which was initially written by User:Editor45687):

• It was based on a single source and seemed written to attack Makary for making an incorrect prediction, without covering other aspects of his work or thoughts on the pandemic. (This was true of the first version of the paragraph, but IMO has since been addressed.)
• It incorrectly describes Makary's views as conservative, when he does not have a political agenda. (I removed this statement from an earlier version of the paragraph in response to this criticism.)
• It does not list all of Makary's positions, and also other pages (e.g. Scott Gottlieb) do not highlight mistakes or failed predictions they made, so this is unfairly negative. (This is the criticism brought up about the version of the paragraph above.)

To speak plainly, I think it is notable that Makary is a well-credentialed and respected doctor who has advocated a more permissive approach to COVID-19. I think it's clear that this has been an approach he has called for consistently - e.g. advocating for universal masking while others were calling for lockdown, advocating for an early reopening when others were saying that we should wait until vaccines were universally available, and advocating for "living with COVID" when others were calling for measures to contain the Delta/Omicron variant surges. I also think it's clear that in the US, this is generally aligned with conservative political views, and Makary has this year mostly been publishing his views in more conservative media properties such as the WSJ opinion page, Fox News, or the NY Post (in addition to editing a more neutral COVID digest in MedPage Today). I think some people are objecting to characterizing his views as "conservative" because there is a perception that all conservatives also hold more fringe views like advocating ivermectin/HCQ or arguing that the COVID death toll is made up, neither of which he has done.

This has mostly been removed from the above version of the paragraph, but I also think it is important to call out where Makary's predictions have been incorrect or are misleading (as we should be doing for all COVID pundits/influencers). In particular, I think it would be good to highlight that the risk of vaccine-induced myocarditis in young men, even if slightly elevated from background, is low in absolute terms (I think it is 0.0011%, and the risk of post-COVID myocarditis is higher).

Would appreciate others' thoughts. GlobeGores (talk page | user page) 19:07, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

COVID edits

Dr. Makary has been one of the leading voices on the pandemic since February 2020. He worked to warn the general public when the pandemic threat was being downplayed by Dr. Fauci as a “low risk” even when he knew it was an imminent threat.

Dr. Makary has worked to follow the science throughout the pandemic and in reality, pretty much every person has been wrong about something in regards to COVID. The White House, the CDC, and pretty much every person on TV. If we are to go down the road of calling out everything each voice got wrong in the pandemic we are going to be here a long time. I would say Dr. Makary has probably been about 80-90% accurate on most of the things he has said and done, and he has always advocated for vaccines and masking (which are the two best defenses we have against COVID).

If you want to go down the road of calling out everything he has said right and wrong, we can do that, and then we can do it for each major voice in the pandemic. Or maybe we just not try to hold every person to an unrealistic standard and realize this is a dynamic public health situation. 100.16.169.167 (talk) 05:03, 31 December 2021 (UTC)