Dr. Drew Pinsky told Newsmax on Friday that attitudes that justify denying medical care based on political beliefs stem from unresolved moral failures that took hold during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to warp the medical profession.
On "Finnerty," Pinsky reacted to a Florida anesthesiologist who said he would not treat supporters of President Donald Trump and was later stripped of his medical license by state officials.
Pinsky said the controversy reflects the same dangerous mindset that emerged during COVID, when some in medicine openly debated whether unvaccinated patients should receive care.
"That whole episode should have been a massive wake-up call literally for everyone," Pinsky said, referring to the COVID-era debate over treating unvaccinated patients.
"Unfortunately, some people are still hypnotized and some people are still eroding their moral compass with all this."
Pinsky, chief patient officer at the Wellness Company, stressed that the ethical duty of medical professionals is clear and nonnegotiable.
"Look, our job as physicians and nurses is to serve the patient in front of us," he said.
"I have had to take care of disgusting murderers before," he said. "It was hard.
"I had a moral discomfort in my body taking care of this individual. And I wanted not to.
"I wanted to spit on him. I did my damn job.
"That's the way it goes."
Pinsky acknowledged that doctors and nurses are human and may have strong feelings about the people they treat, but said professionalism requires that those feelings be set aside.
"And look, you can have all the feelings you want," he said. "Do the damn job and do it well."
If a physician believes those feelings make it impossible to provide proper care, Pinsky said there is only one ethical option.
"If you feel you can't do it well, you're impaired by these feelings," he said. "You can quietly step aside and put somebody in your stead.
"But you cannot abandon the patient. And you cannot refuse the patient care."
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