Reasons why Dr. Beleh should lecture in P3 MedChem

Unfortunately, this is not a list of reasons why Dr. Beleh should lecture in P3 MedChem (I think that list writes itself). I tried to write about something positive, I promise I really did. But I can’t seem to move past the season finale of the Pitt, our discussion this past week on vaccines, and a chart note I came across  at work. 

For those who have not seen the show, the Pitt is a medical procedural that takes place over a shift in a busy ER in Pittsburg. Without spoiling anything, a child comes into the ER via ambulance presenting with an unknown viral infection. While the fictional doctors are throwing out differentials, I immediately thought of measles because TV writers love that stuff. Naturally, the child had measles and of course, the parents were against vaccines. They were also against lumbar punctures because the mother had read a post about how they could be dangerous. I won’t give anymore away, but I think you can imagine the frustration of the team trying to convince the parents of a dying child that their source was unreliable, and he will die without the treatment. 

I have also been thinking about the family of the child who was unvaccinated and died from measles. Despite losing their child, they still do not believe in the MMR vaccine and believe that it was “her time on Earth” and that she’s “better off where she is now”. We obviously have very different beliefs and values, but I truly cannot imagine losing a child to a vaccine-preventable disease and continuing to speak out against vaccines. 

The chart note I saw this week was not vaccine-related, but in the same vein as the other stories. This patient had a baseline call with a pharmacist to discuss and oral chemo agent to destroy any residual cancer cells. The pharmacist went through all of the usual counseling for a new oral chemo med, which is time consuming, all for the patient to ask, “How do we know the FDA isn’t poisoning people?”. Of course, the next chart note was, “Patient did not wish to start medication.” 

Maybe I was naïve, but I thought the anti-science conspiracy theories would recede once COVID was less rampant. I think this is something that needs to be investigated in relation to healthcare provider burnout. I tried to do some research on this topic and came across an AMA article about combatting anti-science. Their first suggestion was to recognize the “new normal”. It’s tough to want to go out as a new pharmacist and combat the misinformation when the advice is to give up. This is something I need to have on my radar to prevent burnout for myself. It’s frustrating because I can give claim, evidence, and reasoning for why vaccines are safe as a future pharmacist, but I can’t make people empathetic.

Sources:

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/20/texas-measles-family-gaines-county-death/

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/5-tips-battle-anti-science-aggression-doctor-front-lines