Did someone forget to tell doctors in Wisconsin about cameras, smart phones, the Internet, social media and cable news outlets?
You’d think people smart enough to get through medical school would understand that in today’s world of instant global communications anything they say or do, especially in the in the public arena, can be recorded and distributed.
And so it appears some doctors—certainly more than just one—were handing out signed notes to protesting teachers to use as illness excuses for their absences from school.
One of those who documented the practice on video was a Fox News producer. The doctor did not know her, had not examined her, yet gave her an official note excusing her from work for being sick.
Have these doctors broken the law, or are they simply guilty of a major ethical violation? Conjecture over that quickly followed on-air. One physician, Marc Siegel, suggested that medical licenses could (perhaps even should) be in jeopardy.
Apparently, stupidity is not limited to the stupid. It can infect all demographics and ethnicities, including even the most educated among us. Today’s media and communication realities are fueling revolution throughout the Mideast. It’s stunning to watch those who should know better ethically and morally act as if no one will ever find out what they’ve done.
To its credit, the Wisconsin Medical Society has gone on record condemning doctors who are writing and signing illness excuse notes for protesting teachers.