- I worry, genuinely, about the consequences
of a doctor who has a large following
telling his audience to use something
that he knows is not safe and carries serious risk.
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode
of the Wednesday Checkup.
I've been finding myself spending
a lot of time on Twitter lately,
trying to get the most up-to-date information
about coronavirus out there,
as well as leaning at the same time,
and I've come across a few doctors
that have found themselves in hot water
after making some statements about COVID-19.
Before we start, I wanna give a huge thank you once again
to the healthcare frontline workers.
Doctors, pharmacists, nurses,
everyone that's helping battle COVID-19.
Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
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(static buzzing)
Let's start off with Dr. Drew
who seems to be in the most hot water right now.
Mostly about his statements that he made prior
to the coronavirus becoming a pandemic.
- Way less virulant than the flu.
That should be the headline,
way less serious than influenza.
Should the Olympics be canceled?
That's funny.
DeBlasio told them not to ride the trains,
so they're not riding the trains,
and so I am (laughing).
I mean, it's ridiculous.
The flu virus in this country is vastly more consequential.
It is a press induced panic.
- Twitter absolutely exploded once this video went live
and got millions of views seemingly in minutes.
And look, I'm not gonna lie, I got emotional watching this.
I got riled up.
I tell people to not get anxious
because once they get emotional they make bad decisions,
and here I was getting upset.
The reason why I got emotional in watching that
is because I started thinking about
the potential consequences that could come about
when a trusted figure like Dr. Drew
tells people to now worry about this novel coronavirus.
Did they go out?
Were they exposed to this virus?
Did they get potentially really sick
and even lose their lives?
Where I think Dr. Drew took his biggest misstep
was not the fact that he was wrong about
the novel coronavirus, we're all entitled
to be wrong as experts, as doctors,
because medicine is an imperfect science.
I've said in other videos how medicine
is as much art as it is science
because two doctors can look the same situation
and have different interpretations of it.
I think where he went wrong was he forgot, somewhat,
that medicine carries within itself a level of humility,
we have to approach it with a level of humility.
To me, if Dr. Drew came out and said something like,
"Look, I think in my own expert opinion
"that this novel coronavirus won't be as bad
"as the media is making it seem,
"but we'll keep looking at the information,"
I think that would have been a reasonable statement to make,
even though he was wrong at the end.
All of this really serves as a stark reminder
that expert opinion is and should always be
considered the lowest form of evidence.
When we talk about levels of evidence,
we look at expert opinion,
basically what a doctor thinks is right,
then we move on to a case series, observational studies,
then the gold standard randomized controlled studies.
And you even have one up on that,
where you have a meta analyses,
which is many randomized controlled studies.
I am pleased to report, though,
that Dr. Drew did issue this apology.
- My early comments about equating
coronavirus with influenza, were wrong.
They were incorrect.
I was part of a course that was saying that,
and we were wrong.
And I want to apologize for that.
- Interestingly, the verb that we use for medicine
is practicing, we practice medicine,
because we're all bound to make a mistake,
especially with how imperfect our knowledge is,
we're continuously evolving it and doing better,
and trying harder.
All in all, I hope to see Dr. Drew
bounce back from this incident.
I know millions of people look
to Dr. Drew for medical advice,
and he brings a really unique vantage point
to medical media, being that he's duly board certified
in addiction and internal medicine,
with a huge focus on mental health.
(record scratching)
I've heard that Dr Drew's media team
has been issuing copyright take-down notices
for people using the clips that I just used,
I really hope they don't come after us
as this is a good learning opportunity.
Next up, we have another popular
medical media figure: Dr. Oz.
He received some serious backlash on Twitter
for comments he made on Fox News, take a look.
The panic attack is devastating
and it is a physical problem.
It's not just in your head, your whole body,
the rapid palpitations, the sweating,
the feeling that the world is closing in around you,
and these symptoms can cause all kinds
of detrimental effects, which is why
I think a lot of doctors now are feeling
that the worry and the panic about coronavirus
is gonna be worse than the actual coronavirus for them.
- The majority of criticism from Twitter
came from the fact that they felt Dr. Oz
was misrepresenting the views of doctors on the front lines,
who are legitimately more concerned about coronavirus
than they anxiety that can potentially come from it.
I actually happen to agree with Twitter on this one.
I have a lot of Doctor friends who are on the frontlines.
A great example would be Dr. Donald Pettit,
who was actually in my hundred doctors video,
he's an ER resident who happens
to be working in the ICU right now,
he tells me about the equipment shortages,
the ICU and ventilator use that's gone up
tremendously over the last few weeks, and it's scary to him.
I mean he's on the front lines potentially
getting himself sick, bringing the virus home to his family.
He has a newborn baby at home,
so I actually went ahead and texted Dr. Oz.
I mentioned the negative criticism he was getting,
my thoughts on the subject, and I'm happy to report
he was quite welcoming of that,
and he said that in the following interviews
he was going to make a change in the way
he spoke about this, and correct his previous statements.
I do live television quite often,
and I know how easy it is to have one thing in your mind,
and then speak something that comes out somewhat different.
So I was appreciating the fact that Dr. Oz
was open to this type of feedback,
and was willing to change his statements in the future.
I think that's how we as doctors really have to function
in order to be more effective communicators
and better at relaying crucial medical information
to the general public.
Up next, we have quite a polarizing figure
in Dr. Joseph Mercola.
Dr. Joseph Mercola is a practicing physician,
he takes a naturopathic approach
to how he treats his patients, he's quite popular online.
He's actually found himself in hot water quite
a few times with the FDA for making
unsubstantiated claims about products
that he sells on his website,
and I haven't really found any claims
that I was interested in debunking until I saw
a few recent tweets that caught my attention.
The first tweet reads as such,
"While unproven, one current theory is that
"electromagnetic field radiation,
"and the addition of 5G in particular,
"could be having an impact on the COVID-19 pandemic."
This is actually a very common conspiracy theory
that's being put out there on social media forums,
on Reddit, what have you.
Here's the problem, no evidence exists
to support this theory.
Let me talk about briefly how we create theories in science
and then how we go about testing them.
First and foremost, you have to have an idea
with a plausible mechanism of how that idea comes to be.
For example, if you wanted to create antibiotics
before there were antibiotics,
you had to think to yourself,
"Well, this antibiotic can work in this method
"to kill this bacteria,
"thereby eliminating it from the system."
You go ahead, you try it in lab models,
animal models, human models, and you work your way up.
Here, there is no plausible mechanism
for how EMF waves or 5G makes people have
worse cases of the novel coronavirus.
That's why I wish this tweet ended
when he said, "While unproven."
Because while it's unproven,
we can make any random correlative statement.
The fact that February had an extra day this year
could be a reason why COVID-19 is affecting us so seriously.
You can really substitute that with anything,
and that goes to speak to the power
of the difference between correlation and causation.
Remember, correlation, two things happening simultaneously,
5G and coronavirus.
Causation is when something directly
causes that thing to happen.
The next tweet, which I think
is the more problematic of the two, reads of such.
"Nebulized hydrogen peroxide therapy
"is an inexpensive and simple way
"to treat most viral respiratory illnesses,
"all you need is a nebulizer with a face mask
"that covers your mouth and nose,
"and common household hydrogen peroxide
"available at most grocery stores and pharmacies."
Now, there's a few things to unpack here.
First and foremost, the CDC and FDA clearly state
that there exists no proven methods
to treat or prevent COVID-19.
And to me, when a doctor believes their own expert opinion
outweighs those of major medical organizations,
like the CDC and FDA, without substantial evidence,
you're crossing a line.
Next, let's talk about the dangers
of inhaled hydrogen peroxide.
Straight from the CDC website,
"Hydrogen peroxide is not absorbed by the skin,
"but can cause systemic toxicity when inhaled or ingested."
I have to read this next whole segment
because of how serious it is.
"Vapors, mist, or aerosols of hydrogen peroxide
"can cause upper airway irritation,
"inflammation of the nose, hoarseness, shortness of breath,
"and a sensation of burning or tightness in the chest.
"Exposure to high concentrations can result
"in severe mucosal congestion of the trachea and bronchitis
"and delayed accumulation of fluid in the lungs."
"Children may be more vulnerable to corrosive agents
"than adults because of the relatively
"smaller diameter of their airways."
Dr. Mercola, in his own YouTube video,
actually states that you should not use
common household hydrogen peroxide.
- The companies put in stabilizers there,
and they're pretty much all proprietary,
so they don't have to disclose
what those specific stabilizers are,
but believe me they are not intended
for human use or consumption,
and they are not cleared for safety studies
for human consumption.
So these are not designed to be typically
swallowed, ingested, or inhaled.
- I worry genuinely about the consequences
of a doctor who has a large following
telling his audience to use something that
he knows is not safe and carries serious risk.
Do not nebulize hydrogen peroxide,
do not think it's gonna eliminate COVID-19,
it's not proven, it's not smart,
and it's potentially very dangerous.
I actually reached out to a Board Certified
pediatric ICU physician, Dr. David Epstein,
you may have seen him on my hundred doctors video,
and he said quote, unquote,
"So shameful to take advantage of people like this
"and potentially cause harm.
"I've never heard of anyone doing this
"and can help to think that someone
"won't walk away with some kind of pneumonitis.
"I just hope they don't listen to this advice.
"Totally unethical."
I 100% agree.
I really hope Dr. Mercola issues a retraction
and tells his audience, which is a rather large audience,
the danger of doing this with hydrogen peroxide.
Please click here for my hundred doctors video,
I literally interviewed 100 doctors in seven days.
Yes this entire video was made in seven days.
These doctors took out the time to get you the information,
click on it, click on it, click on it,
while saying happy and healthy, of course.
(upbeat music)