They describe the author this way: “Adalja is a practicing infectious disease, critical care, and emergency physician.” And leave out that he is the head of a PR consulting firm.
Here’s his linkedin profile:
Amesh Adalja on Linkedin – Tracking Zebra, LLC, Nov 2016 – Present, Pittsburgh, PA Infectious Disease related project management, consulting, media, and strategy firm founded by Dr. Amesh Adalja
This is not medical advice, it’s just business.
“In today’s corporate culture major PR firms promote crisis management as a necessary business expense. Whenever something bad happens to a corporation, often its first move is not to deal with the actual problem, but to manage the negative perception caused by that problem.”
“Currently according to some estimates, more than 50% of what we think is news is actually instigated by the public relations industry. PR professionals measure their success in terms of how well they can insert their clients’ messages into the continuous flow of news and information while their own activities remain out of view.”
— Toxic Sludge is Good for You (documentary 2002)
Hope someone else deals with the bullshit assymmetry principle involved in countering this op-ed’s gish gallop, because considering the source, the assertions should be scrutinized for error and pro-business propaganda to manufacture mild and normalize harm.