The limits of free Geach

Dr. Jonathan Geach is a Tennessee anesthesiologist and one of the many knowledgeable Power Line readers who has brought his professional training to bear on the current crisis. On Friday afternoon Dr. Geach wrote us to advise that he had co-written the Medium post “Eight reasons to end the lockdowns now” together with a few of his colleagues. I posted a link in our Picks.

“By early Saturday afternoon,” Dr. Geach writes, “it had 50,000 thousand views and was going viral. All of a sudden, however, I started getting notifications from people that my article had been taken down.” The link now brings up a 410 error. He received this message from Medium:

Hello,

Due to elevated risk of potential harm to persons or public health, Medium’s Trust & Safety team has removed the following content under its rules here:

Eight reasons to end the lockdown now.

More info here.

Due to current heightened global public health concerns, we’re giving careful scrutiny to coronavirus-related content on Medium to help stem misinformation that could be detrimental to public safety. We will remove content which is determined in our analysis to be likely to increase the risk of potential harm to persons or public health.

In the interest of transparency, this includes, but is not limited to, the following prohibited claims:
– Health claims or advice which, if acted on, are likely to have detrimental health effects on persons or public safety.

Prohibited Health claims:
• Denial of effectiveness of social distancing or quarantine for COVID-19, or calls encouraging people to suspend these practices before official determinations have been made public

Thank you.
Medium Trust & Safety

After inserting a disclaimer and making a couple of minor edits to comply, Dr. Geach republished his column. “But,” he writes, “the damage had been done. There were thousands of links to the earlier article spread around the internet.” He comments:

We live in a world of liberal intolerance, of which I would never before have believed. Deplatforming, as this is called, is really a modern form of book burning. We must burn books that go against the dogma. I have good credentials and am a physician. My co-authors — four other physicians and a nurse practitioner — also had good credential, and we advocated well-reasoned and duly sourced positions. Unfortunately, we hold the wrong opinion, and a “dangerous” one at that.

Here is a link to the new Medium article. It has been picked up at ZeroHedge and can be found here.

Here is the disclaimer Dr. Geach has superimposed over his revised column:

This post does not deny the effectiveness of social distancing or quarantine for COVID-19. I am not encouraging people to suspend these practices before official determinations have been made public. This post is to help physicians, thought leaders and public officials understand and weigh the risks and benefits of extended lockdowns versus more measured and earlier return to work measures.

With variations, Dr. Geach’s experience of course calls to mind that of Aaron Ginn, which we documented at the time. Aaron Ginn’s now deleted Medium column also found refuge here at ZeroHedge.