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'The Woke Cult Has Captured Medicine': Meet Your Future Doctors

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  February 15, 2023 11:00 AM

During a White Coat Ceremony at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Class of 2025 is seen in a resurfaced video reciting a woke version of the Hippocratic Oath. 

In the 2021 video that's currently making the rounds on social media, Lisa Mellman, a senior associate dean for student affairs and the Samuel Rudin professor of psychiatry, leads the class in the CRT-infused pledge. 

"We enter the profession of medicine with appreciation for the opportunity to build on the scientific and humanistic achievements of the past. We also recognize the acts and systems of oppression affected in the name of medicine. We take this Oath of service to begin building a future grounded in truth, restoration, and equity to fulfill medicine's capacity to liberate," the class oath starts. 

“I promise to self-reflect diligently, to confront unconscious prejudices, and to develop the skills, knowledge, and character necessary to engender an inclusive, equitable field of medicine," it continues in a later section. 

As Columbia explains, the class developed the new pledge to reflect their values in the August 2021 ceremony. 

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Students decided on a new oath (see next page) that better reflects the values they wish to uphold as they enter their medical training. The oath includes a commitment to “acknowledge and embrace the diversity that exists within all communities, and the formative influence that the Washington Heights community will have on my future as a physician.” This year’s ceremony at the Armory was an in-person event with limited faculty and guests. The ceremony was also available via Zoom.

The idea for a new oath came up in 2020 shortly before the White Coat Ceremony for the Class of 2024. The students did not have enough time to develop a new oath, so members of the Class of 2024 asked to help members of this year’s incoming class develop a class oath. The writing took place over many weeks during the summer, with current MD students trained by the VP&S education office as writing facilitators to work with incoming students and collaborating faculty members. Going forward, each incoming MD class will have the opportunity to create its own oath. (Columbia)

Social media users criticized the woke "New Hippocratic Oath."