Trump’s claim that physicians are profiting from more COVID-19 deaths is as preposterous as it is offensive.
Susan R. Bailey, M.D.
President, American Medical Association
“Throughout this pandemic, physicians, nurses, and frontline health care workers have risked their health, their safety and their lives to treat their patients and defeat a deadly virus. They did it because duty called and because of the sacred oath they took. The suggestion that doctors—in the midst of a public health crisis—are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge. COVID-19 cases are at record highs today. Rather than attacking us and lobbing baseless charges at physicians, our leaders should be following the science and urging adherence to the public health steps we know work—wearing a mask, washing hands and practicing physical distancing.”
BY MORGAN GSTALTER
The American Medical Association (AMA) on Friday issued a scathing statement condemning
President Trump’s claim that doctors are purposefully inflating coronavirus case numbers, calling the suggestion "malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided."
Trump, while speaking at a rally in Waterford Township, Mich., on Friday, argued without evidence that doctors are improperly counting coronavirus deaths for monetary gain.
"Our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, 'I'm sorry, but everybody dies of COVID,'" he said.
As you might expect, medical professionals are livid over Trump’s malicious claim.
Full disclosure: my father was a doctor who attended Johns Hopkins Medical School.