WASHINGTON DC, KOMPAS.com – Weekly medical journal United States of America, New England Journal of Medicine, published an editorial Wednesday (8/10/2020), containing calls for President Trump to leave White House because of his bad policy towards Covid-19, which has killed many U.S. citizens.
“We rarely publish editorials that are signed by all editors,” said Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of medical journals and author of a new editorial CNN on Thursday (8/10/2020).
Rubin said the editorial was drafted in August, detailing how the United States leads the world in Covid-19 infections and deaths.
So far, more than 7.5 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and more than 200,000 people have died from the disease.
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“This crisis has produced a test of leadership. In the absence of good options to combat new pathogens, countries are forced to make difficult choices about how to respond to them,” he said.
He continued that, “Here in the United States, our leaders have failed the test. They have created a crisis, and turned it into a tragedy,” the editorial said.
However, he said that the editorial was not for support presidential candidate and presidential candidates, but more for wanting to provide harsh criticism of the Trump administration’s leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Anyone who recklessly wastes life and money in this way will suffer legal consequences. Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But, this election gave us the power to judge,” the editorial said.
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According to him, the leaders political The US has now shown that it is very incompetent when it comes to responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, the biggest public health crisis of our time.
“We should not support them and allow the death of thousands of other Americans, by letting them keep their jobs,” he said.
The New England Journal of Medicine began publication in 1812.
There are only 4 previous editorials that were collectively signed by the editor, namely the first, in 2014 on contraception. Second, in the same year an obituary was published for the former editor-in-chief.
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Third, an editorial that year on standard care research and the fourth, a 2019 editorial on abortion.
“The reason we never publish an editorial on elections is that we are not a political journal and I don’t think we want to be a political journal, but the problem here is around facts, not (health) opinions,” he explained.
“There have been a lot of mistakes made that are not just stupid, but reckless and I think we want people to realize that there is truth here, not just opinions,” said Rubin.
He later explained, for example, the problem of mask function, social distancing, quarantine and isolation. That’s not an opinion.
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“Deciding not to do it may be a political decision, but trying to show that this function is not real is delusional and dangerous,” he said.
“We don’t have the right leader for this epidemic. I think we need better leadership,” he said.
New England Journal of Medicine is not the only medical or scientific publication that has taken a political stance in the midst of the pandemic and its approaching US presidential election 2020 this November.
In September, magazine Scientific American announced that they support former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden over President Trump, who has neglected science.
The announcement marked the magazine’s first publication Scientific American about a presidential candidate in its 175 year history.
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