Petition to Cut Leana Wen as APHA Speaker Faces Backlash

Some physicians and public health experts have taken issue with language in an online petition to have Leana Wen, MD, taken off the speaker list at this year’s American Public Health Association (APHA) meeting.

The petition, currently signed by 508 people, initially described Wen as a “keynote speaker” for the meeting and called for replacing Wen with “someone whose work is consistent with anti-racist, anti-eugenicist public health practices and community health.”

Some doctors on #MedTwitter lambasted the eugenics comment: “You can disagree with @DrLeanaWen on her stances on opening schools or mask mandates, but connecting her to eugenics in an effort to get her cancelled from the @PublicHealth annual meeting is morally reprehensible,” tweeted Eric Widera, MD, of the University of California San Francisco.

NYU bioethicist Arthur Caplan, MD, agreed: “I don’t agree with Dr. Wen but she is qualified to speak, her views coincide with what Biden administration seems to be doing or not doing, making her a mainstream, not fringe, voice, like it or not,” he tweeted. “Engaging her views not censoring her is the right course.”

Detractors have argued that removing COVID restrictions will hurt the most vulnerable populations in the U.S., amounting to eugenics by causing more deaths in these susceptible populations.

Wen is also not a keynote speaker; the petition’s title was subsequently updated to reflect that. Wen is one of three panelists for a session titled “Backlash,” moderated by American Journal of Public Health editor Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD. The goal is to discuss challenges faced by public health officials in highly charged political environments.

One of the other panelists is Thomas Dobbs, MD, MPH — of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision that pulled back federal abortion protections. Dobbs recently resigned as the state health officer for Mississippi.

“I was invited to speak on a panel entitled ‘Backlash’ that specifically addresses how difficult it is to navigate public health policy against a backdrop of challenging politics,” Wen said in an email to MedPage Today. “It’s my understanding that the panelists were selected because we have experience dealing with controversy.”

“Public health practitioners are often in positions where we must balance competing priorities, which results in criticism from all sides,” Wen added. “These are important experiences to share and to discuss with fellow practitioners, students, and the public.”

APHA is standing firmly behind its decision to have Wen speak at the meeting. In an interview with MedPage Today, APHA executive director Georges Benjamin, MD, said the petition “has so many misstatements in it. In my view, they’re doing exactly to her what they’re accusing her of doing.”

Benjamin noted that a Texas man was convicted of threatening to harm Wen for promoting the COVID-19 vaccine, sending her messages such as: “Never going to take your wonder drug. My 12 gauge promises I won’t,” and “I’m a 5th generation U.S. Army veteran and a sniper … I can’t wait for the shooting to start,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“People forget she was being beaten up by misinformation people long before,” Benjamin said.

While Benjamin said he doesn’t agree with everything Wen says, “she hasn’t said anything that’s out of line. Even if she had, it wasn’t malicious, and we believe in strong scientific debate. … Having people with different views is what science is all about.”

A spokesperson for APHA added that the petition was never sent directly to the organization.

It’s not immediately clear where the petition originated. The first signature belongs to Ashlee Van Schyndel, MPH, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois Chicago. As of press time, Van Schyndel had not returned a request for comment from MedPage Today.

Joyce Frieden contributed reporting to this story.