Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for years has publicly said he\u2019s a physician \u2014 but there\u2019s overwhelming evidence that he\u2019s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor.<\/p>\n
This April, he gave an interview<\/a> to a local TV journalist where he talked up his credentials as a physician multiple times. In March, he told a group<\/a> of Teamsters nurses that he had \u201cbeen in enough codes to watch who really does the work\u201d and said that same month<\/a> on a podcast that \u201cI\u2019ve been a doctor my whole career.\u201d<\/p>\n His LinkedIn profile<\/a> currently says he\u2019s a \u201cphysician,\u201d and late last month he called himself<\/a> \u201ca physician and epidemiologist\u201d at a Council of Baptist Pastors debate in Detroit.<\/p>\n But according to a review of Michigan and New York state medical records, he\u2019s never been granted a medical license in those states. El-Sayed\u2019s hands-on experience treating patients appears to be a short clinical rotation called a sub-internship at a small hospital in Manhattan for four weeks at the end of medical school, he told a podcast<\/a> in 2022, where he said his \u201cjob was to be the, like, worst doctor on the team\u201d and he was \u201ccosplaying a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe perception in Michigan is that he is, at least at one point in his life, a licensed physician,\u201d said Chris Dewitt, an unaligned Democratic strategist based in Michigan. \u201cThat apparently is not the case, and it blows up a big part of his campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has earned the right to be called \u2018doctor\u2019 twice over,\u201d El-Sayed spokesperson Roxie Richner said in a statement. Richner didn\u2019t respond to questions about his use of the word \u201cphysician.\u201d El-Sayed has said in the past that he decided not to practice medicine after treating a patient during medical school and decided he wanted to address systemic issues, instead of individual patients.<\/p>\n But his history of suggesting to voters that he served as a practicing physician \u2014 with examples stretching back almost a decade \u2014 has muddled his personal history, adding confusion to his otherwise impressive achievements. In 2018, when El-Sayed was running for governor of Michigan, Crain\u2019s Detroit Business published a story<\/a> that also examined his claims of being a physician but not having a license to practice medicine in Michigan.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of ways that one serves as a physician. And I think the work that I have done and I continue to do is true to the core and the ethos of medicine,\u201d El-Sayed told Crain\u2019s Detroit Business at the time<\/a>. \u201cAnd when I took my Hippocratic Oath, that is still an oath that I use to guide my work today. I\u2019m a physician because I have an MD, but I\u2019m also a physician because of the work that I\u2019ve dedicated my career to.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet El-Sayed has made his medical credentials a key part of his appeal on this campaign, often highlighting his background in medicine and as a physician \u2014 or not correcting people when they mention it. When Sen. Bernie Sanders appeared with El-Sayed last year at a Medicare town hall, the Vermont independent stopped to remind the livestreamed audience why he was backing El-Sayed: \u201cthere are no people in the Democratic caucus who are physicians,\u201d he said. Abdul sat silently<\/a> by and didn\u2019t correct him.<\/p>\n To some in Michigan\u2019s political establishment, his claims are misleading.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a weird thing to hang your hat on in terms of a biographical detail if you never actually practiced medicine,\u201d said Adrian Hemond, a Democrat who is CEO of Lansing-based political consulting firm Grassroots Midwest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not as though he hasn\u2019t done anything with all of the fancy education that he got like running public health programming for Wayne County and for the city of Detroit. And so maybe you would lean into that, as opposed to giving people the impression that you may have practiced medicine before,\u201d Hemond said.<\/p>\n Richner, El-Sayed\u2019s spokesperson, said the Senate hopeful has two doctorates and has spent his career improving health care for Michiganders, including being a top champion of Medicare for All. His campaign pointed to a story he\u2019s repeatedly told about why he wanted to work in public health and not practice medicine: When he was doing his sub-internship, he treated a homeless woman for a host of issues, including a head injury, AIDS and alcohol addiction. After she was discharged from the hospital, he ran into her sleeping on the subway and then realized that his calling was not to practice medicine, but instead to break the poverty cycle so there would be fewer patients like his last patient.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than this being a gotcha attack, this is Dr. El-Sayed\u2019s origin story \u2014 one that Michiganders are familiar with,\u201d Richner said.<\/p>\n Polls currently show a three-way primary contest<\/a> between El-Sayed, Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow \u2014 with El-Sayed rising, a move that has alarmed some moderate Democrats because of some of his more progressive views on defunding the police and his controversial appearance with the left-leaning Twitch streamer Hasan Piker<\/a>.<\/p>\n El-Sayed has also touted being a \u201cphysician\u201d in at least two instances when he was in New York even though New York state law prohibits people<\/a> from using the title \u201cphysician\u201d if one is not licensed. At one conference in 2015<\/a> in New York City that he was slated to speak at, his bio said he was \u201ca public health physician and epidemiologist.\u201d In a 2012 op-ed<\/a> he wrote, he called himself \u201ca social epidemiologist and physician\u201d who was studying at Columbia.<\/p>\n In 2018, he dressed up in a white doctor coat<\/a> in an ad for his campaign for governor, and also used a photo of himself<\/a> in the same garb last June for a fundraising pitch.<\/p>\n El-Sayed\u2019s publisher\u2019s description of his 2020 book<\/a>, titled \u201cHealing Politics,\u201d said El-Sayed was a physician who \u201ccould heal the sick.\u201d In 2024, he said \u201cmany of my doctor friends\u201d call him<\/a> a \u201cself-hating doctor\u201d because \u201cthe way that we tend to operate tends not to put our patients first.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it does matter for voters that he hasn\u2019t really practiced medicine, but it\u2019s part of a broader pattern of him doing a job and not sticking around very long,\u201d said Joe DiSano, a Michigan Democratic consultant not affiliated with any campaign in the race. \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna claim that you\u2019re a doctor, you should have the practical experience of seeing patients on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n