The Negative Impact of Woke Ideology on Medical Research

The impact of woke ideology extends beyond education and politics, as it is also negatively affecting scientific inquiry. In particular, medical research is being dominated by woke ideology, which is hindering honest and accurate inquiry. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is a case in point. The study claims that structural racism, unmet social needs, and systemic bias are the root causes of disproportionately higher mortality rates in Black males and females. However, previous research suggests that almost all of the racial gap in life expectancy can be explained by other factors, such as family income, education, occupation, unemployment, urban residence, home ownership, and marital status. The authors of the JAMA study simply assume that these factors are racially determined, ignoring other potential causes. For instance, African Americans are more likely to be hypertensive, and group differences in regular exercise and diet appear to contribute to the disparity. The researchers of the JAMA study do not consider these factors, as they have a woke agenda to push. The black/white paradigm through which they view the world is too simplistic and does not account for nuance. Furthermore, the study’s preferred narrative that mortality is a measure of discrimination is further complicated by research demonstrating that “the fraction black increases mortality rates for blacks.” The woke ideology behind the JAMA study is emblematic of the expert class’s obsession with radical theories about gender and race. It is also harmful because it infantilizes and victimizes populations. Disparities in mortality can be addressed with commonsense remedies such as diet, exercise, preventive screenings, and regular visits with a primary-care provider. Instead of prescribing these remedies, public-health experts prescribe learned helplessness and hopelessness, cloaked in the guise of “science.”