AMA Delegates Debate How Much Its Leaders Should Publicly Oppose Trump Actions

CHICAGO -- How forcefully and how publicly should the American Medical Association (AMA) fight the Trump administration's funding cuts and policies that hurt research, public health, and the ability of physicians to have credibility with their patients?

That was the big question underlying a nearly 2-hour debate during the AMA House of Delegates annual meeting, as several physicians blasted the deletion of key CDC datasets ; the federal pause of U.S. pathways for international trainees; the apparent broad dismissal of evidence-based research; and the layoffs of nearly all of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which has devastated many long-standing workplace safety training programs.

"Our quiet acquiescence and silent backdoor talks are not effec