Dr. Akash Goel and Dr. Anthony Choi

Opinion contributors

In our work as gastroenterologists, there are a few types of medical cases we never forget. One is caustic injury to the esophagus caused by ingestion of household bleach or cleaning detergent. As our job involves looking inside the body with a camera, here is the view from the inside: The detergent causes liquefactive necrosis, which literally burns through the layers of the esophagus. In the worst of cases, the damage can perforate the lining of the esophagus, leading to sepsis and death.

There were roughly 200,000 such ingestions in the United States in 2012, according to the U.S. National Poison Data System. They are medical emergencies and are responsible for considerable morbidity.

These substances are unequivocally toxic. We were aghast to hear the president touting injections of them as a possible treatment or cure for COVID-19 last week. Many traditionally look to White House briefings to be purveyors of truth, held to the highest standards. The day after Trump’s briefing, calls to New York's Poison Control Center about toxic exposure to household chemicals more than doubled over the same window last year. Calls surged in Maryland and Michigan as well.

Proselytizing unproven remedies

As physicians working on the front lines of COVID-19, we are deeply concerned about another plague that is epidemic in our country: misinformation. Since the very first cases were identified early this year, our public health response to the virus has been undeniably restricted by contempt toward truth. Initially, in February, the magnitude of the virus’ threat was downplayed during the critical weeks when unmitigated community transmission was occurring.

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Time and time again, the president proselytized the unproven benefits of hydroxychloroquine, claims which were later walked back by the Food and Drug Administration after aJournal of the American Medical Association study reported adverse outcomes of higher death rates associated with certain doses of the drug. This is on top of the tragic accidental death of an Arizona man who ingested a formulation of chloroquine in aquarium cleaner to keep himself from getting sick.

Another element of administration misinformation has been to embed a political and xenophobic agenda into the public health response. Not only as physicians, but also as first-generation Americans from immigrant families, we both took particular offense at the president labeling the virus as explicitly Chinese and also around his blanket immigration bans, which don’t pass muster in terms of public health rationale.

Take it from a doctor:Fake news about the coronavirus is hazardous to your health. Don't fall for it.

As physicians and public health practitioners, part of our concern stems from the fact that misinformation and misdirection are not an isolated Trump phenomenon, but rather are perhaps as pervasive and prevalent as the virus itself. Over the past two months, we have witnessed a Florida county commissioner suggest that the virus could be cured with hot air from a blow-dryer and the Las Vegas mayor suggest that her city be used as a “control group” to see whether social distancing really works.

And then there was Dr. Phil, who isnot a medical doctor, calling for the reopening of the economy after comparing coronavirus deaths to noncommunicable causes of death such as drowning and car accidents. Confused again. This type of thinking is both the cause and effect of our government's sidelining of the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, in the most critical time of need.

We depend on truth for our survival

We have long been warned of false prophets and snake oil salesmen. For hundreds of years, the practice of medicine has evolved with the rigorous scientific method — an iterative process of observation, testing and refinement, and a method that best approximates truth. We have practiced this method religiously in our training over decades so that we can offer our patients the most accurate information.

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We worry not only that there is a devolution and dilution of the scientific method that poses a cultural dilemma, but also a dilution that cuts to the core of the American experiment. Truth is a pillar of our democracy, part of its very fabric. Donald Trump’s false claims about the "fake news" media, and his recent harmful medical advice, erode that foundation of truth and create the environment that political philosopher Hannah Arendt warned of in which “everything was possible and … nothing was true.”

As we are risking our lives on the front lines of the covid response, we feel our government is faltering. In medicine, our Hippocratic oath serves as our foundational truth and guide. Its central tenet is to “do no harm.” As physicians, we feel a moral and professional obligation to speak out against misinformation, which not only serves to confuse but also could threaten the lives of our patients. As citizens, don't we all have an obligation to do the same?

Dr. Akash Goel, an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell/NewYork Presbyterian Hospital, was awarded a Cannes Lion for his work in human rights advocacy. Dr. Anthony Choi is a fellow in gastroenterology at Weill Cornell/NewYork Presbyterian Hospital. Follow Dr. Goel on Twitter: @akashgoel