c/politics · by return2ozma@lemmy.world · 50d

He’s a doctor and a progressive. Will he win a key US Senate race in Michigan?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/26/abdul-el-sayed-michigan-senate

62 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

He looks very promising! Let's hope this works!

MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de · -24 pts · 50d (7 replies)

"Doctor" he lied about being a physician. He completed med school, but never did residency or worked as a physician. He continued on to become an epidemiologist.

Now he has a PhD so "Doctor" is technically true. He had to stop calling himself a physician after politico released this article

TheRealKuni@piefed.social · 12 pts · 49d (3 replies)

He completed med school, but never did a residency or worked as a physician.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't someone who graduated from medical school a doctor? You just can't practice without supervision until you go through residency, right? But like, someone on their first day of residency is still a "doctor," not a "student doctor."

If rather than becoming licensed to practice medicine unsupervised he continued his schooling to become an epidemiologist, it doesn't mean he isn't an MD or DO (whichever he received from medical school), right?

Edit: Ah, the hangup is over the word "physician." That's...okay that seems silly to me but I guess I generally do hear that word in the context of "licensed physician." So I can understand objecting to its use for someone who is not licensed.

Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 49d

To answer the question the weirdo refused to: he's a medical doctor. No need to talk about his academic title, he graduated medical school, has a M.D. and thus is a doctor in common parlance.

They're 100% trying to manufacture a controversy over something that's completely irrelevant and responding in weasely ways to imply there something more going on.

MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 49d (1 reply)

Yes, he is a doctor. He has a PhD.

Earlier in his campaign he lied about being a physician. I have no idea why.

Now this article pops up and the title calls him doctor. Which in this context sounds like physician, but is technically true. And I have no idea why again.

Is this just for Healthcare expertise credentials? As far as I understand he still works adjacent to the field. This is just such a weird thing to lie about.

TheRealKuni@piefed.social · 8 pts · 49d

he lied about being a physician.

Putting the best construction on it, I suspect it wasn’t a lie but rather a misguided attempt to distinguish between his PhD and his medical degree. As in, he is a doctor of medicine and a doctor of epidemiology. One might say “physician and doctor” or something.

But people took umbrage with the use of “physician,” which implies actual practice and licensure, so he stopped using it.

Calling it “lying” adds a level of dishonesty that I’m not sure is warranted. But that’s just me, you do you.

Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 11 pts · 49d

Lol. You really posted this as if it's some major exposé. Centrists are a trip.

soratoyuki@piefed.zip · 11 pts · 49d

From your Politico article:

There’s no doubt that El-Sayed has top-notch medical credentials. He attended the University of Michigan Medical School and ended up receiving his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has a doctorate in public health from Oxford University and worked as an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia for a year before moving to Detroit to be executive director and health officer of the Detroit Health Department.

Good enough for me.

decolo@piefed.social · 8 pts · 50d

Wow, thanks Politico for saving us from another socialist monster!

I can't wait to see what they cook up when they start to get desperate