18 Mar Update on Interview with Dr. Richard Bartlett
My interview with Dr. Richard Bartlett on AmericaCanWeTalk in July 2020, about the use of inhaled budesonide in connection with the covid crisis, came about in a most unusual and inspiring way. Normally I choose to invite people on my show because I know them personally, or because through a friend or colleague I have a strong recommendation or assessment of their accomplishments or goals. But in Dr. Bartlett’s case, I literally met him a gathering of engaged, activist women, and after talking with him and hearing his heart and passion for caring for patients, and his concern for those struggling with Covid-19, I decided to invite him onto my show the very next day.
I couldn’t possibly have known at that time what controversy would arise out of that show, nor did I understand the nuances of terminology then in place in the medical world regarding use of the word “cure.” I chose to label that interview with the term ‘cure’ because that was my common sense understanding of what Dr. Bartlett was talking about, and not because he asked me to use that term.
Since that time as the choices doctors make in treating Covid patients have come under extremely unusual and seemingly politicized scrutiny by other doctors, hospitals and medical boards, I have come to learn that the word “cure” has a technical definition in the medical world that is different from what the average American thinks.
It pains me to think that my innocuous use of the word “cure” in labeling the interview with Dr. Bartlett could be contorted into a basis for criticizing him, but that is unfortunately what seems to have happened. I am sure the medical authorities believe they are serving the public good in encouraging careful use of certain words by physicians, but I hope they never lose sight of this larger reality: real covid patients of Dr. Bartlett’s asked to come on my show to thank him publicly for prescribing budesonide because they found relief from their suffering and symptoms, and were and are grateful for his care.
Debbie Georgatos