An 'Epidemic of Mistrust': Medical Insider Says Public Health Leaders Get It Wrong Too Often

For generations, Americans have relied on public health leaders to keep them safe and healthy. However, too many of the recommendations we follow turn out to be wrong, according to Dr. Marty Makary, chief of Johns Hopkins Islet Transplant Surgery. 

Makary told CBN News the medical establishment's blunders became apparent to many Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are dealing with an epidemic of mistrust," Dr. Makary said. "Many of us were right when we were saying the schools should not shut out the kids for years, that toddlers did not need to be wearing a cloth mask for such long periods, that natural immunity was real, that the COVID vaccine booster in young healthy people lacked scientific support, that the Wuhan lab leak was the likely cause." 

He said perhaps the most egregious act came over rules banning people from visiting dying loved ones in medical facilities.

"That was a human rights violation. Nobody should be prevented, regardless of the circumstance, from holding the hand of their dying loved one in the hospital," Makary said. "But the medical establishment has not apologized."

COVID Was the Tip of the Iceberg

Makary said erroneous COVID-19 recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg, adding that public health leaders have a long history of issuing incorrect guidance. In his book, Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health, Dr. Makary cites several examples, such as American parents being told to withhold peanut products from their children from birth to age three.

"It turns out that peanut avoidance in the first few years of life doesn't prevent peanut allergies, it causes them, and so ignited the modern-day peanut allergy epidemic," he said.

Another decision, according to Makary, is the misguided approach to pain pills.

"The opioid epidemic was caused by the medical establishment putting out a dogma that opioids were not addictive," he said. 

Similarly, Dr. Makary points to the Food Guide Pyramid, introduced by the USDA in 1992, which was upheld as the best dietary advice through 2005. It advocated Americans eat mostly foods like bread, pasta, and rice. 

"The obesity and diabetes epidemic may have, in part, been caused by the dogma of the Food Pyramid that was financed by the food industry," he said. 

Wrong Pattern of Thinking

Dr. Makary says while poor public health decisions can stem from arrogance on the part of America's top doctors, he says perhaps the more likely reason is a wrong pattern of thinking that all people, regardless of profession, can fall into.

"We tend to believe what we hear first, not because it's more logical than new information, but simply because we heard it first," he said. "That sort of intellectual laziness means that our brains will subconsciously reject new information, or reframe it to fit what we already believe."

Dr. Makary cites that as the reason why 80 percent of doctors today deny older women highly beneficial hormone replacement therapy.

"There was a medical dogma propagated 22 years ago by the National Institutes of Health where a doctor claimed it caused breast cancer, when the data never supported it."

Likewise, Makary says too many doctors who were taught in Medical School that antibiotics couldn't hurt a patient today over-prescribe the drugs despite new data showing antibiotics kill important gut bacteria.

"They train the immune system. They even produce serotonin, which is involved in brain health and mood," he said. "This microbiome is central to health. It's been a blind spot of modern medicine. We don't talk about it much."

Check the Facts

Makary says too many pediatricians falsely believe their young patients might commit suicide if they don't get the gender reversals they request. 

"The worst thing you can do in science is to tell a parent or a patient something with such absolutism, saying that it's scientifically supported, when it's not," he said. "Turns out that the increased suicide risk is driven not by the gender dysmorphia diagnosis that's assigned to the kid, but rather the underlying mental health disturbances."

Makary says health professionals, actually all people, would benefit by questioning whether certain beliefs are held because they are actually true, or because they simply were the first thing learned about the subject. 

"We need to recognize that our brains have that human tendency, and then temporarily and actively suspend our biases, because we all have biases. We have to acknowledge that, and suspend those biases, as we consider new information objectively."

For example, Makary says when it comes to the medical establishment, healthcare professionals need to question whether pharmaceuticals are always the answer. 

"We've got to study environmental exposures that cause cancer, not just the chemotherapy to treat it. Maybe we need to treat more diabetes with cooking classes, than just giving people insulin," he said, adding weight loss drugs and hypertension medication might be replaced with lifestyle changes. "Maybe we need to treat more high blood pressure by talking about sleep quality and stress management. Maybe we need to talk about school lunch programs, not just putting every six-year-old on Ozempic."

Don't Lose All Trust in Doctors

While pointing out doctor errors and stressing the need to improve, Dr. Makary warns against overreaction. 

"We don't want to create hysteria in the general public about the medical profession," he said. "If you're in an emergent or urgent situation, do whatever the doctor tells you."

However, he said more doctors should be willing to utter the words, "We don't know," when applicable. 

"When it comes to chronic abdominal pain, or what's actually causing our epidemic of autism, or autoimmune diseases, or the general inflammatory conditions that are now epidemic in society, we don't have a good answer for you," he admitted.

Back to Basics

Dr. Makary suspects our modern diet and lifestyle play a key role in both the cause and cure of many of our chronic conditions. 

"It's almost as if we're now rediscovering that many of the Biblical principles around health is where we need to get back to," he said. "It's not a matter of discovering new things, it's a matter of reminding us of our great heritage of good health."

That heritage is based on ancient practices such as eating whole foods the way God created them, instead of consuming processed foods and beverages created in labs and factories. Similarly, research shows Biblical practices like prayer and being part of a community are known to protect our health. Studies also reveal fasting, cited throughout Scripture, results in a number of physical benefits.  

So while public health guidance can be confusing, and even wrong at times, evaluating recommendations with an open mind and through a spiritual lens can help. 

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