In this episode of STAT’s “First Opinion Podcast,” I talk with Haider Warraich, a physician, writer, and clinical researcher at two Harvard-affiliated hospitals. We break down an argument he made in a First Opinion essay, “Hospitals need to earn their tax-exempt status,” which details his first experience with an American hospital after finishing medical school in Pakistan and how it seemingly turned its back on the surrounding neighborhood.
I chose Warraich’s essay, “We need more physicians like the ‘yellow berets,’” as the 2,000th First Opinion. In this episode, he also told me a little about his interview with Anthony Fauci for that piece — the self-proclaimed “dummy” of his beret class.