Doctor Warns: Medical Misinformation Can Be Deadly

In the dark winter of 2021, as COVID-19 cases surged across the United States, Dr. Patrick L. Johnson found himself on the frontlines of a pandemic that would forever shape his view of medicine. Now, the University of Michigan Medical School physician has shared his harrowing experiences in a powerful essay published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), highlighting the deadly consequences of medical misinformation during the COVID-19 crisis.

Johnson, who serves as a general surgery resident and health services research fellow, estimates that approximately 20,000 Americans died each month for over a year due to preventable causes linked to medical misinformation. His essay confronts a troubling question facing medical leaders today: How should the medical profession adapt to combat the rising tide of false medical information?

The physician vividly recounts a traumatic incident from his time as an intern in a COVID-19 intensive care unit. Responding to frantic calls for help, Johnson rushed to the bedside of an unvaccinated patient in acute respiratory distress. The patient, who had reportedly not followed social distancing or mask-wearing guidelines, was coughing up massive amounts of blood from a tracheostomy.

“Massive hemoptysis from the tracheostomy drenches the nurse,” Johnson wrote, describing how the healthcare worker continued suctioning the patient’s obstructed airway despite being soaked with potentially infectious fluids. Their personal protective equipment, which Johnson noted was substandard and rationed, offered little protection.

Despite their efforts, the patient died. After working for more than 24 hours straight, Johnson completed the required death paperwork with his senior resident, only to notice dried contaminated blood on his scrub pants—a grim reminder of the day’s events.

When he returned home exhausted and emotionally drained, Johnson turned on a cable news channel, where he heard commentators downplaying the severity of the pandemic with statements like, “It’s no different than the common cold” and “No one is really dying—this is about the medical establishment controlling your life.”

“Without warning, the tears finally came in overwhelming force. I have never felt so broken,” Johnson recalled in his essay.

While physicians are trained to cope with death as part of their professional journey, Johnson emphasized that deaths attributable to medical misinformation—whether through vaccine hesitancy, false remedies promoted on social media, or recommendations against public health measures—remain particularly devastating.

“When filling out a patient’s cause of death, there was no box to check for ‘medical misinformation’ as the root cause,” Johnson wrote. “Nor on the tens of thousands of other death packets filled out by medical trainees serving on the pandemic’s frontlines.”

The physician pointed to specific examples of life-saving measures that were undermined by misinformation. COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced mortality among high-risk patients, yet many chose not to get vaccinated. Similarly, mask-wearing lowered transmission rates, but many declined to follow this guidance.

The concern over medical misinformation extended beyond major medical centers. In Sudbury, Canada, healthcare providers noted similar challenges, with some experts observing that political ideology often superseded scientific evidence in people’s decision-making.

Johnson argues that the medical community must unite across all disciplines to confront the harm caused by misinformation. However, he emphasizes that regaining patient trust requires acknowledging the medical establishment’s past shortcomings while still respecting patient values.

“If we do not adapt to the rising threats from medical misinformation, we will let down both our future patients and the generation of trainees filling out their death packets,” Johnson concluded.

As the healthcare system continues to process the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson’s firsthand account serves as a stark reminder of the real human cost when scientific facts are drowned out by misinformation. For today’s medical professionals, particularly those who trained during the pandemic, these experiences have forever altered their understanding of healthcare’s challenges in the information age.