Pediatricians
have been hot! Ever since measles spread out from Disneyland, what
we have been dealing with internally in pediatricianland, how to deal
with the anti-vaxers, has gone mainstream.
For
me the heart of pediatricianland is SOAPM, the Section on
Administration and Practice Management of the American Academy of
Pediatrics. There are over 1,100 of us in this section, and on the
SOAPM listserve 50 messages a day is a slow day. If you are lonely
and have little to do, joining SOAPM can fill up your day real fast.
And truthfully, SOAPM has become a real home for me, and my
admiration for SOAPM denizens fills my heart. It makes me so pleased
and proud to be a pediatrician. Practical people, assertive people,
inventive people, imaginative people, people with great hearts and
minds and values, people who are not ashamed to say, “No margin, no
mission!” And then they go out and do the right thing.
So
when measles got hot, SOAPM got hotter. Some of our energy has been
going into how do we convince anti-vaxers to vaccinate? Some energy
into, what does our American Academy of Pediatrics do with the rogue
pediatricians who capitalize on the anti-vax movement to sell books
and get publicity? Shouldn't they be drummed out of the AAP and lose
their imprimatur as Fellows of the AAP? Some of our energy has gone
into how the AAP should respond publicly, especially after they
issued a somewhat tedious statement once again reaffirming the value
of vaccination with zero pizzazz. Some of our energy has gone into
trying to get the AAP to revise its statement that practices should
not dismiss patients who delay or deny vaccination, but should work
with them.
Truth
to tell, my practice was always counted among those who accepted
anti-vaxers and worked with them. But now, if I ran the zoo, I'd
change that. For one thing, the public tide has turned and there is
value in putting up a common front. For another, there is now
evidence that shutting out antivaxers convinces more patients to
vaccinate than “working with them.” But of course I know longer
run the Bayside zoo – thank goodness!
But
then, while all the sturm und drang of SOAPM dialogue was
proceeding, up came a message on the Listserve from James Weidman of
Los Angeles – “Watch the Jimmy Kimmel show,” he said. And then
came this clip:
This clip made
me so, so proud to be a pediatrician and a SOAPMite.
OK, the AAP was
too reserved and stodgy. But, is this a great country, or what? In
liberal democracies there is a multiplicity of channels and freedom
of expression. Enter popular media! Enter emotion, enter sarcasm,
enter dirty words! Enter great intelligence and communication and
presentation skills, and enter great directorial skills that enabled
these real life pediatricians to be such great performers! To me,
these pediatricians perfectly bridged the profession's rectitude with
being able to relate as lovable human beings, which to my mind is the
essence of being a pediatrician.
I am just so
proud!
Sometimes, the
best politics is great entertainment.
Budd Shenkin
No comments:
Post a Comment