Trump just picked a new Surgeon General, and she’s got some seriously baffling quotes to emblazon on the sides of cigarette cartons across America. In the eyes of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, social media kills.
Dr. Janette Nesheiwat is a doctor. That should be obvious, but considering Trump’s Department of Education Chair doesn’t have classroom experience or a degree in education, it begs some clarification. Nesheiwat is a family health and emergency doctor. Ok, good? She’s also a medical contributor on Fox News. Considering that many of Trump’s Cabinet picks have reared their ugly heads on the conservative news network before, I wouldn’t be surprised if her time with Fox was the sole reason she was hired.
When it comes to health, Nasheiwat has some… colorful ideas. She’s expressed her desire to ban social media for teens across the nation, and has praised a Florida law that disallows children under 13 from creating social media accounts and requires 14 and 15 year olds to get a parent’s permission. Her interview came just hours after a 20 year old gunman attempted to assassinate Trump while he was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania. “In my opinion, I think social media should be banned to all teenagers, to all young children,” she told Fox News “because it’s done nothing but harm.”
According to the American Psychological Association, social media, like the human race that it represents, is a bit of a mixed bag. While the negative aspects of social media, such as isolation, loneliness and an all consuming sense of FOMO are apparent, these platforms have significant benefits to teens as well. Social media platforms are places where communities are built, and where information and experiences are shared. For a trans teen seeking connection in an increasingly anti-LGBTQ America, social media is not just a luxury, but a lifeline to the greater queer community.
The argument for social media, particularly for how it serves as a benefit to queer and trans kids, will likely remain unheard by Nasheiwat. While Nasheiwat has broken with Trump administration rhetoric around trans people and “accept them and love them for who they are,” the ways that she intends on showing that love to the trans people she serves is deeply flawed. Nasheiwat argues that the medical establishment is “only wanting to push drugs and hormones and other types of surgical interventions” to treat trans kids, despite major medical organizations’ oft-stressed point of view that these treatments, while medically necessary, are to be handled with caution and care.
Nasheiwat argues that instead, trans teens should be treated with a “conservative approach, such as psychotherapy.” Yikes. Here’s how I imagine that conversation going: “So tell me, how does it make you feel to be a second class citizen in a nation that denies you medical care, a place to use the bathroom, and is attempting to legislate you out of out existence?” Pretty shitty, doc. At best, her argument is sympathetic but misguided. At worst, it sounds like a thinly veiled suggestion that trans people are mentally ill and need to be treated with conversion therapy.
When it comes to American teens, particularly queer teens, Dr. Nasheiwat is ill-equipped to advise. What she can advise you on, however, are the myriad reasons why should buy the medical supplements that she hocks on cable news. Oh, and why it’s a “smart” idea to use hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, despite what the WHO says. Don’t worry about the fatal side effects. Maybe she’s right, and we should ban social media, it sounds like that’s where she gets her medical advice from.
