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In his 1941 state of the union address, Franklin Roosevelt spoke of four freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from want and freedom from fear. We the undersigned primary care physicians believe that the current assault on science writ large and health care in particular place the latter two freedoms at risk.What could be more wanted in 2025 America than the best health care that science has to offer and what could be more feared than lack of access to that health care for oneself or a loved one in time of need ?As primary care physicians with a collective thousand years of medical practice, over 2 million patient encounters, we know of what we speak.
Through years in medical school and residency training physicians are imbued in the scientific method. We are taught to seek fact and apply the accrued knowledge of the thousands who have gone before us and to rely on our peers in the research community, government agencies and university programs to bring us the latest advancements in healthcare and keep us up-to-date as the scientific community continues its search for more truth and knowledge. Knowledge that we can take into the exam rooms every day and so that we may offer to our patients the best healthcare.
We know that microbes cause disease, that antibiotics and antivirals work, that bleach doesn’t cure Covid, that cod liver oil won’t stop a measles outbreak and that vaccines are among the most miraculous of creations of the human mind, eliminating from the planet diseases that once killed millions. We know that cigarette smoking is a leading cause of lung cancer. We know that clean water and safe foods are essential to health.
We know that uncontrolled high blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke and heart disease and can be treated with lifestyle changes and modern pharmaceuticals. We know that diabetes is a multisystem and deadly disease that can be controlled with modern day treatment. We know that rigorously tested treatment protocols cure many pediatric cancers that were once universally fatal.
All of this we know through the achievements of science.Yet in 2025 we see the science upon which the health care system is based under siege. Scientists are humans, the nature of whose work leads them into the unknown in search of new knowledge and truth.
Errors are human and inevitable, but errors do not indicate incompetence, greed or corruption. There is a reason that studies are called clinical trials. No one is more critical of science than the scientists themselves.
Rigorous peer review is the guard rail by which error and sometimes bad science are cleansed from the system in favor of fact and truth. Today’s error or failed trial is a steppingstone to tomorrow’s breakthrough. Science should be celebrated, not denigrated.
Science cannot flourish without funding through agencies, such as the NIH and other research grants. Knowledge cannot reach the medical community and thereby the public without agencies such as the CDC, which provides information and guidelines for practice. Knowledge cannot be safely applied without oversight from government agencies, such as the FDA, the surgeon general, the EPA and others.
The knowledge and bounty of the American health care system cannot reach the world without agencies such as USAID and WHO.‘I am going through hell’: Job loss, mental health, and the fate of federal workers.Are these agencies flawed? Of course they are, they are human creations in constant need of improvement.
But improvements should be made with the precision of a surgeon, not with the shredding of a chainsaw.Primary care physicians know that every American has a stake in our health care system from the moment of conception until the last heartbeat and every day in between. When each of us starts our day, none of us knows how that day will end, but for many it will involve some sort of health care calamity.
No one is more than a degree or two of separation from someone with a serious health condition. A robust and vibrant state of the art American health care system is in the vital interest of all of us as Americans, and moreover, as citizens of the world. In 2025 health care should be considered a right, not a privilege.
The American health care system should be available to all regardless of finances or circumstances in our society. Any assault on the health care system or its financial underpinnings provided by the government, Medicare, Medicaid , the Veterans Administration, should be considered an assault on our rights.What can be done ? We in the healthcare community are speaking up.
We ask you as our patients , as Americans, as consumers of healthcare and as citizens of the world to speak up as well. Raise your consciousness to this crisis, speak to your family, neighbors friends. Contact those whom you think will listen.
Donate time and/or money where you feel it will be most impactful.And most important of all, when the time comes to vote, vote. Vote for candidates who believe in science.
Vote for candidates who believe that healthcare is a right and should be accessible and affordable to all.Vote as if our freedoms are at stake, because they are.Primary care physicians,Richard Truex MD; Susan J.
Baumgaertel, MD FACP (Seattle); Linda Schroth, MD; Jonathan Rosen, MD past chair Connecticut Center for Primary Care; Michael Jimenez MD.; Rubin W. Hirsch MD.
; Michael Olsen, MD; Jeffrey Ettinger, MD; Christopher J Veale, MD; Robert Rothenberg M.D.; Eric Rosenberg, MD, FACP; Howard Selinger MD; James W.
Cox-Chapman, MD; Michael Olsen, MD; Jay Kaplan MD; and Michael Good MD..
