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What's NEJM? Prestigious medical journal calls for Trump to be voted out in first endorsement in 208 years

The editorial titled 'Dying in a Leadership Vacuum' endorsed Biden and condemned the Trump administration for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic

New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, October 7, published an editorial condemning the Trump administration for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic and calling for the current leadership in the United States to be voted out of office. The editorial was titled 'Dying in a Leadership Vacuum'.

Condemning the Trump administration's role during Covid-19, the article said: "Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly? We had ample warning, but when the disease first arrived, we were incapable of testing effectively and couldn’t provide even the most basic personal protective equipment to health care workers and the general public. And we continue to be way behind the curve in testing. While the absolute numbers of tests have increased substantially, the more useful metric is the number of tests performed per infected person, a rate that puts us far down the international list, below such places as Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia, countries that cannot boast the biomedical infrastructure or the manufacturing capacity that we have."

The article further slammed the response of the "leaders" and said, "The response of our nation’s leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by the party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was the world’s leading disease response organization, has been eviscerated and has suffered dramatic testing and policy failures." The article further added, "Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed 'opinion leaders' and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies."

Podcast host Scott Dworkin later shared, "BREAKING: The New England Journal of Medicine Editorial Board endorsed Joe Biden. The Journal has never endorsed anyone in 208 years. They said the magnitude of the Trump Admin's failed coronavirus response is 'astonishing'. 'They turned a crisis into a tragedy.' #AmericaNeedsJoe."

To this one netizen replied, "I think most reasonable minded people don’t need an endorsement to convince them to vote for Biden, however the people we need to convince probably don’t even read medical journals, so here we are.....personally I’m pleased!"

One Twiteratti shared the link of the article and wrote, "The hard work of health care professionals, who have put their lives on the line, has not been used wisely. NEJM Editorial: Dying in a Leadership Vacuum. October 8th 2020." While another one wrote, "7 months into a pandemic, in the United states of America, your health care workers are still sterilizing single use n95, reusing face shield and wearing reusable gowns. Your neighbors are dying. #VOTE @NEJM."

And some called it the most "important" article and wrote, "The most important article of the evening. Good night! Dying in a Leadership Vacuum | NEJM." One took a quote from the article and wrote, '"Truth is neither liberal nor conservative' Dying in a Leadership Vacuum | NEJM."

What is NEJM?

NEJM is a Public Access journal with all the original research content. In addition, readers in qualifying low-income countries are granted free access to all articles on NEJM.org, dating back to 1990. The editors also make articles that meet the criteria for global and public health importance free to all readers immediately upon publication on NEJM.org.

In September 1811, Boston physician John Collins Warren along with James Jackson proposed a formal prospectus to establish the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and Collateral Branches of Science as a medical and philosophical journal. Consequently, the first issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Medical Science was published in January 1812.

The Intelligencer ran into financial troubles in the spring of 1827, and the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Medical Science purchased it in February 1828, merging the two publications to form the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. In 1921, the Massachusetts Medical Society purchased the Journal for $1 (equivalent to $14 in 2019) and, in 1928 renamed it to The New England Journal of Medicine.

Each year, NEJM receives at least 16,000 research and other submissions for consideration for publication. About 5% of original research submissions achieve publication by NEJM, more than half originate from outside the US.