My first article of 2021 was about my disappointment with the behavior of many elements of the medical establishment in 2020—and how I was proud to consider myself officially broken off from them. You can read my piece here. The last year has been profoundly eye-opening for me, and there’s been an enormous dichotomy between the sheer heroics of medics that I’ve seen at the frontlines, and the actions and messaging of significant portions of the medical power establishment.

On a personal level, I have been shunned by many of the usual publications that typically take my work, and I have on several occasions also faced the wrath of physician colleagues. All for daring to express my medical opinion and point of view that may have been different from the “mainstream”. But that’s okay. I stand strong and refuse to be bullied. I am steadfast in my belief that in my part of the country, the northeast, we have been making huge mistakes in our COVID response and public messaging right from the very beginning. These include, but are not limited to: going into extreme non-focused lockdowns, closing schools, failing to protect and provide support to the elderly, insisting people wear masks while outdoors in non-crowded environments—and dreadful mistakes with the vaccine role out. All of these have cost additional lives. Moreover, our response has disproportionately affected the poor (especially children), and I repeat: not a single person who has advocated strongly for lockdowns, would have done so if their paycheck was going to be adversely affected. Lockdowns are a luxury of the upper-middle classes, millionaires, and Zoom-aucracy.

Furthermore, I am proud to have stood against what I have personally witnessed as the mob-like behavior of the medical establishment. The ranks of academia and TV doctors, although may be fine people on a personal level, have quite disgusted me collectively—with how they have acted towards any countering viewpoint.

As I stated in January’s article, in case anyone isn’t well-versed in history, the medical and scientific establishment has a long history of not only being wrong on major issues, but also actively suppressing anybody who goes against entrenched beliefs and feelings. From Galileo being castigated and banished by his peers for saying the earth revolves around the sun, Semmelweis being made to feel crazy when he told his fellow physicians to disinfect before doing medical birthing procedures, or Dr John Snow being overwhelmingly rejected by his colleagues for saying that cholera was spread by dirty London water—the now celebrated list of historically shunned doctors and scientists is endless. The groupthink behavior of their educated colleagues towards them, in forming mobs and ridiculing them, drove many of them to the brink of despair! Later, sometimes sadly posthumously, they were found to be right. But during their lifetimes, they didn’t budge from their logical theories or try to be more popular with their colleagues.
I am not comparing myself to Galileo (although that would be nice), but you catch the drift. There is always an establishment viewpoint out there, and anybody who says anything different is at risk of reprisals. It’s one thing if what is being said is a complete crackpot theory or outrageous suggestion—but legitimate logical theories from educated professionals should be listened to and not silenced or threatened with reprisals.

Centuries ago, it was religion that held control over science—with disastrous effects. Now it’s become more political and emotional. That’s dangerous. Medicine and science should be totally separated from emotion and politics, and I am willing to die on the hill of science always being open to debate, and never influenced by dogma or feelings. Case in point of how much we’ve drifted: the New England Journal of Medicine. I used to practically worship that journal a decade ago. I tossed my subscription away a couple of years ago, but my jaw has dropped recently at how political and dogmatic it has become. What happened to it being all about publishing medical trials for doctors to review and discuss? Take a look at it now—it’s clearly been taken over by radical young political activists. When this happens to our premier medical science journal, we are in trouble.

But back to the title of this article. What do chimpanzees have to do with this? Well, as our closest living animal relative—a lot. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the behavior of chimpanzees, I urge you to YouTube any good documentary. Like humans, they are tribal animals. The younger males go on patrols of the corners of their territorial boundary. If they encounter a chimpanzee from another tribe, they brutally attack it (even if it’s a baby) in an act of mob violence—and frequently engage in depraved acts like tearing off their limbs and cannibalism. The female members of the tribe not only watch this happen, but occasionally enjoy in the feast too. That’s how chimpanzees hysterically respond to a tribe member that’s not their own.

We share about 99 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees. Please think about that carefully for a moment. How far are we from acting like that? Our collective human history suggests that up until recently, mass depraved violence was not only common, but normal. One only has to ask their parents and grandparents what brutality was visited upon humanity in the 20^th century. Millions of years of evolutionary biology isn’t going to take those instincts away from us, and the only thing that stops our descent back to brutish mob chimpanzees are a combination of: laws, societal norms, and sheer willpower.

One of the most touching experiences of my life was in 2019 when I went to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. It was almost as shocking to me as when I visited Auschwitz in Poland a couple of years before that. After the tour, our guide, who was Jewish, got the group together and told us that the message of the museum and the Holocaust to the world could be summed up in 2 powerful words: Be Vigilant. Humans have an unimaginable capacity for excesses and hurting their fellow beings. And the assaults on other humans usually start off small.

Now I am not for one minute comparing the Holocaust, any other mass genocide, or Chimpanzee mob attacks—to the medical community, which is full of big-hearted and compassionate souls (although it would be amiss not to mention that many of the foulest individuals conducting human experiments and following extreme ideologies in totalitarian 20^th century Fascist and Communist regimes—have sadly been physicians). Intelligence and knowledge, coupled with a desire for power and control, are a dangerous mix. But my point is this: Humans are intensely tribal and need to find “other tribes” to attack in mobs. From the neurocognitive and behavioral psychology standpoint, It’s in our DNA and an inescapable part of our nature which needs to be kept in check. This comes in many different forms today, thankfully most of the time devoid of physical violence and all-out war zones; from organizational rivalries, to sports games and yes, even science. I am proud to be a physician who will always Be Vigilant, and call out the intolerant mobs when I see them. Whether it’s the social media physician twitter group, an academic institution, or a publication like the New England Journal— science and real data must always rule over ideology. And you never silence, intimidate, or viciously attack people who disagree with you and aren’t in your tribe.

Suneel Dhand is a physician, writer, and YouTuber. He is Founder at MedStoic Lifestyle Medicine and DocsDox . Follow him on YouTube and Instagram