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When it comes to favoring Abdul El-Sayed in the press, we have another – albeit petty – example. Among the many things to be questioned about the Michigan candidate is one regarding his status as a doctor. While he does possess a doctorate, as we will see, not everything is so conclusive, and the press seems to have shifting standards on the matter.
Part of why this issue has percolated up is the coverage last week of the truncated tenure of Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary. Among the criticisms hurled her way, one was that she has a history of making appearances and declaring herself an attorney.
She does have the college course requirements for a law degree, but Zacharia has never passed the bar, let alone served as an attorney. So the criticism of this declaration by her is valid. In the case of El-Sayed, we see quite the parallel.
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He too went through the formal education to become a doctor, earning his degree to earn that title. But he has never actually held a medical license or practiced medicine. He, like Zacharia and the bar, never became a licensed physician.
Now the fact that he has earned a doctorate entitles him to the title. But the question that lingers is whether there is a distinction between being Doctor Abdul El-Sayed and being a physician, which he has repeatedly claimed to be. This depends on who you are hearing from on the matter. (This has even confounded the First Lady when she appeared on The View; after years of the press insisting that we call her Dr. Jill Biden, she was not so reflexive in cloaking herself in that manner.)
Politifact tried to wade into these murky waters, and the struggle can be seen at the top. In attempting to parse this conflict and to determine if the claim made at a debate is accurate – that Abdul El-Sayed is not actually a physician, made by Mike Rogers – the source of definitive data demurred. Their fact-check tellingly bears no TRUE/FALSE judgment.
“Whether he is a ‘physician’ depends on who is defining it,” was the inconclusive assessment reached.
And therein lies the quandary. The title doctor is a broad application of an earned degree; no argument. But does the term “physician” carry a more defined role? Does it mean you are practicing and have the ability to treat people?
Recognizing this distinction was none other than Mehdi Hasan. He dared to actually press El-Syaed on the matter of positioning himself as a physician, and the candidate delivered what has become his trademark tactic of delivering a non-answer: “It’s not about whether or not I’m a physician or a doctor. The question is, can you see a doctor? It’s not about my education, it’s about whether your kid gets good education. So I’m just not spending time on that.”
Abdul El-Sayed has been treading close to deception regarding these definitions. There have been numerous times when the candidate has positioned himself as someone actually practicing medicine, with veiled language. Because of this, the press is leery to explore the pathology, as his words need to go under the microscope.
In a podcast interview earlier this year, he said vaguely, “I’ve been a doctor my whole career.” That is a very interpretative statement, one that might be made to sound one way but granting plausible interpretation. In an interview in April, he was continually referring to himself with the credentials of being a physician. Again, giving just enough leeway to recalibrate what that might mean.
Less vague was him speaking to nurses in March and declaring, “I’m a doctor, but I’ve watched enough codes to watch who really does the work.” That is a rather direct assertion, and doing so to a group of unionized medical workers heightens the implication being made. He was effectively telling them, I’m one of you.
Much like the time his campaign contradicted the candidate on his dual citizenship, the El-Sayed office delivered another deflection on his medical stance. Instead of addressing the claims he has made, his staff offered the definitions stipulated by the American Medical Association, but that governing body delivers an opaque rationale:
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A physician is an individual who has received a “Doctor of Medicine” or a “Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine” degree or an equivalent degree following successful completion of a prescribed course of study from a school of medicine or osteopathic medicine. Anyone in a hospital environment who has direct contact with a patient who presents himself or herself to the patient as a “doctor,” and who is not a “physician” according to the AMA definition above, must specifically and simultaneously declare themselves a “non-physician” and define the nature of their doctorate degree.
I’m sorry, but WHAT?! It basically stipulates that if you have a degree, you are a “physician”, but if you say you are a “doctor” and are not a “physician”, you have to declare you are only a “doctor”; that is based on the degree earned…which they stated makes you a “physician”.
More direct is the Michigan Public Health Code. It states succinctly what an individual can describe themself as based on the professional stature achieved. (Emphasis added.)
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An individual who is not licensed or registered under this article shall not use an insignia, title, or letter, or a word, letter, or phrase singly or in combination, with or without qualifying words, letters, or phrases, under a circumstance to induce the belief that the person is licensed or registered in this state, is lawfully entitled in this state to engage in the practice of a health profession regulated by this article, or is otherwise in compliance with this article.
An individual shall not announce or hold himself or herself out to the public as limiting his or her practice to, as being specially qualified in, or as giving particular attention to a health profession specialty field for which a board issues a specialty certification or a health profession specialty field license, without first having obtained a specialty certification or a health profession specialty field license.
This is where Abdul El-Sayed could have crossed a line of professional misrepresentation. He has never performed his required residency; he is not licensed to be a practitioner, and he cannot prescribe medication.
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It was this past April when speaking at an even when he declared himself to not only be a physician but also that he is an epidemiologist. So it is more than fair to suggest he has presented himself in public as an acting physician to some level, in possible violation of his state’s regulations.
The media have been willing to go along and describe him consistently as Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, with little exploration of the way he has labeled himself. This has delivered a rather imbalanced approach by the press to those in the medical profession who are also involved in politics.
Consider how infrequently we have heard “Dr. Rand Paul” used when reporting on the senator, who is a certified ophthalmologist. Byron York recently uncovered another example of the bifurcated way the New York Times addresses medical professionals.
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While the paper is content to go with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, back when he was running for the presidency, Dr. Ben Carson was referred to by the paper only as “Mr. Carson”. That is a diminished approach to the man who is a celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon.
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