Cosgrove’s busy week includes anti-vax column linked to Cleveland Clinic

It’s been quite a week for Cleveland Clinic and its high-profile President and CEO, Dr. Toby Cosgrove.

When he wasn’t taking part in high-powered panel at the StartUp Health Festival alongside the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Monday in San Francisco or getting a shout-out from President-elect Donald Trump during Trump’s Wednesday news conference, Cosgrove was in serious damage-control mode back home.

Cosgrove laid down the law this week after Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute Director Dr. Daniel Neides had an incendiary commentary published on cleveland.com last Friday. In his latest monthly column, Neides issued a plea for clean, toxin-free living in 2017, saying that people should even avoid the preservatives found in vaccines.

Neides went on what seemed to be anti-vax screed:

Does the vaccine burden – as has been debated for years – cause autism? I don’t know and will not debate that here. What I will stand up and scream is that newborns without intact immune systems and detoxification systems are being over-burdened with PRESERVATIVES AND ADJUVANTS IN THE VACCINES. (Caps in original.)

That did not sit well with Cleveland Clinic leadership or with angry mobs on social media. Cleveland.com, which is published by The Plain Dealer newspaper, added a disclaimer to the commentary, saying that the Clinic has “disavowed this column.” The column also disappeared from the site for a few hours on Sunday.

A cleveland.com executive explained that Neides essentially is a blogger, so his columns go up with little or no oversight from cleveland.com or The Plain Dealer. But Cleveland Clinic’s communications department does review and post everything Neides contributes to the website, and a communications staffer apparently was the one who deleted the column over the weekend.

Neides issued an apology, in which he said, “I fully support vaccinations and my concern was meant to be positive around the safety of them.” The Clinic has since vowed to discipline him.

Meanwhile, according to a STAT story on Wednesday, Cosgrove fired off a memo to employees, warning them against attaching the Cleveland Clinic name to discredited ideas. He also took another shot at Neides.

“These opinions do not represent evidence-based medicine, and the Cleveland Clinic remains committed to advocating for vaccinations to prevent the spread of communicable diseases,” Cosgrove reportedly wrote.

“Whether we realize it or not, every caregiver is a representative of Cleveland Clinic. How we engage in our lives outside of work can be linked back to our health system,” Cosgrove continued.

“[I]n our world of social media, where every message has the potential to cause confusion and controversy, we must be mindful that our personal views cannot be associated with Cleveland Clinic’s.”

The story might not end there. Monday, STAT reported that the Clinic has for months been evaluating the scope of the Lyndhurst, Ohio-based Wellness Institute. According to that article:

Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Shiel told STAT that hospital administrators are concerned that the institute’s focus has grown too unwieldy and less connected to the clinic’s broader mission of providing the best, evidence-based medicine and services to patients. She said the wellness center will likely stop selling some of its commercial products, such as homeopathy kits sold in the gift shop of its suburban Lyndhurst location, and move toward general wellness programs that would improve diet and lifestyle decisions by patients and its own employees.

So perhaps this is not the first time Cosgrove thought Neides or the Wellness Institute had crossed a line?

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Keep Memory Alive