dr-drew-pinsky-top.jpeg
Getty Image
Viral

Dr. Drew’s Medical Credentials Are In Question After He Compared Vaccine Passports To ‘Segregation’

For what it’s worth, Dr. Drew Pinsky is a real doctor. Before he became a media personality, he was even chief resident at a hospital in Pasadena. But like other celebrity docs, like Dr. Phil and poorly received Jeopardy! host Dr. Oz, he has a tendency to traffic in dubious medical claims. Dr. Drew hasn’t handled the pandemic well. He was dragged for comparing it to the flu, only to catch it himself. Now he’s being raked over the coals for saying over-the-top things about so-called “vaccine passports.”

Many in conservative circles have come out against the Biden administration’s suggestion for how to keep Americans safe when not everyone has been vaccinated. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the passports the “mark of the beast,” because of course she did. Dr. Drew doesn’t like them either, though he didn’t make a strong case, and not only because of his loaded language.

“These vaccine passports segregate people and strip them of their freedom to travel internationally,” Dr. Drew tweeted. “Vaccinations are important, and I encourage everyone to get the Covid vaccine, but how would you feel if international travel also required other vaccinations?”

For one thing, travel is already severely restricted due to a highly contagious disease. For another, he doesn’t mention that non-vaccinated people are a public health risk. And yet another: vaccines were already required for travel to certain countries before there was a once-in-a-century pandemic.

A lot of people patiently (or not so patiently) explained this last part to the man with the medical degree.

https://twitter.com/DogsDadBod/status/1379110216843862022?

https://twitter.com/nate_bowling/status/1379113932623872002

Vaccines are also, as most medical professionals well know, required for other activities as well.

https://twitter.com/preising/status/1379127143318306816

Others began putting their trust in other so-called doctors.

https://twitter.com/ScottWamplerBMD/status/1379181071888216071

And others (such as, admittedly, this author) Googled whether Dr. Drew is a real doctor.