Michael Dowling laments ‘troubling’ federal policies

Michael Dowling says he’s worried that recent changes in federal health policies will carry long-term implications that will harm the nation’s health.

Dowling served as president and CEO of Northwell Health for 23 years before stepping down earlier this month, and he’s continuing to serve the organization in an advisory role as CEO emeritus.

In a conversation with Chief Healthcare Executive® just a week before he stepped down, Dowling voiced concerns about the Trump administration’s health policies. He says he’s worried about the government eroding confidence in vaccine safety and, more broadly, a lack of regard for science. He said some of the administration’s policies are “absolutely awful.”

“The policies coming out of Washington recently, is that troubling? For me, it’'s very troubling for the future of the United States, much more so than the future of Northwell Health, and we are losing the concept of what the American idea is,” Dowling says.

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

• Read more: Northwell Health's new CEO outlines top priorities

Dowling also says he’s worried about weakened international relationships, including with the World Health Organization. And he’s dismayed by the National Institutes of Health terminating research grants and cuts in medical research funding.

“When you undermine science and you, and you undermine the trust in science and you curtail research, which eliminates the possibility that our kids will have the benefits that we have exercised because of the treatments that emanated from research over the last 50 years, that worries me,” he says.

“When you undermine the infrastructure of public health, that worries me. When you create distrust of vaccines … less and less kids are getting vaccinated, when we now have a measles problem where we thought that was eliminated,” Dowling says.

Dowling also decries a government that he says is dividing the country.

“It worries me when you have leadership that is primarily focused on creating disunity rather than bringing people together,” Dowling says.

Dowling says he’s worried about threats to freedom of speech, and he says embracing free speech should mean allowing, and welcoming, those to share opposing points of view.

In a difficult environment, Dowling says healthcare leaders can’t sit on the sidelines and stay quiet.

“I hope that some people have the courage to stand up and talk more about it, and not acquiesce every time there is a danger of retribution, where people are so fearful they acquiesce,” he says. “If you believe in America, you don't acquiesce. You articulate an opposing point of view, which the Constitution allows you to do. At least that's what it was supposed to allow you to do.”

More healthcare leaders and medical societies have been speaking out against changes in federal guidance on vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. Last week, six former surgeons general said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “endangering the health of the nation.”

Medical schools have also expressed alarm at the termination of more than 2,000 NIH grants and proposals to drastically cut funding for NIH research. Dowling says that reduced funding and support for medical research could lead to scientists leaving the field or deter other promising young people from pursuing research careers.

He also says he’s worried about lost capabilities in medical research. “It doesn't come back quickly,” he says.

“When you create constant distrust of everything, distrust in government, distrust in the media, distrust in science, it creates this whole fear about … what can I believe anymore? That's not healthy, that's bad for health, that creates anxiety, that creates a dependence, that creates fear, all which add to ill health,” Dowling says.

Dowling was born in Ireland, but he is a U.S. citizen. As he says, he’s an immigrant, or, like most Americans, the product of immigrants.

He says his friends and family members still living in Ireland are baffled by America.

“Whenever I talk to them, they say, will you tell me what's happening to the United States? What's going on over there? This is not the country that we looked upon as a model to promote democracy and freedom. We're losing that, and we don't have to lose it, but we will lose it, unless somebody stands up and says, ‘Enough is enough,’” Dowling says.

“And I'm hoping the Supreme Court at some point stands up, or the Senate and Congress stands up, and not be spineless and stand up and say, we have a constitutional authority, and in the United States,” he adds. “The presidency can't usurp our constitutional authority, which is happening.”