Philly Leader

Craig M. Wax, D.O., said people should make their own choices in life. 

That includes deciding how they want to react to COVID-19, and he supports allowing businesses to open and the public to go about their daily affairs as they see fit. After all, he said, the government works for you, not the other way around.

“In my opinion all businesses should have the opportunity to reopen sensibly and allow business owners to accept risks for perceived benefits,” Wax said. “People should have the same rights and responsibilities to balance risk as they see fit. The government solution is in most cases, as in this case, much worse than the problem.”

He has joined Restore American Communities Safely, a coalition of doctors, scientists, public health officials, economists and social scientists whose mission is “uniting to get the country and the economy back on its feet.”

Wax, an osteopathic family physician based in Mullica Hill, N.J., is the founder of Independent Physicians for Patient Independence and the host of “Your Health Matters” on Rowan Radio.com 89.7 WGLS FM. He also is a writer and lecturer who frequently comments in the media.

His take on COVID-19 is different from what people hear and read.

“I find coronavirus to be more inflammatory than influenza but not the plague that the media and most politicians make it out to be. They create fear to garner support from taxpaying voters,” Wax told Philly Leader.

He believes instead of cowering inside and ceasing normal activities, people should continue their lives much as they did before COVID-19 arrived in the United States.

“It is my opinion via knowledge, experience, and wisdom gained over many years of practicing medicine, that communities must remain vibrant,” Wax said. “Each Individual doing their part and chasing their bliss. Each accepting risks and benefits of actions as adults must.”

He and psychiatrist Robert Emmons co-wrote an essay titled “Lockdown panic syndrome, and how to fix it.”

“We propose the name ‘lockdown panic syndrome,’ in order to highlight the public health intervention as the etiology of the mental disorder," they wrote. "Put simply, this syndrome consists of anxiety about the coronavirus and confinement at home that leads to paralysis rather than productive problem solving. 

“In some cases, it even results in loss of sphincter control — a rather transparent metaphor for the general problem we face. It is inherently anxiety-provoking and fatiguing to have one’s own judgment about managing the risks of everyday life preempted by the micro-risk-managing directives of public officials who are remote and unaccountable.

“As physicians, we grapple with the same mental challenges as our patients. It is anxiety-provoking to be faced with the possibility of punishment if one does not practice medicine according to government edict, particularly when the authors of those directives are non-clinicians, remote, unaccountable, and concerned with the well being of populations rather than individuals. Physicians beware: public officials will not be responsible for the clinical outcomes resulting from your compliance with their guidance.

The doctors added, “How can lockdown panic syndrome be treated? Encourage patients to take back control over their own daily lives as much as they safely can. Tell patients that their own judgment about protecting themselves will be sound once they have vetted their information carefully and sought individualized guidance from their personal physicians. Patients can also be supported in taking the initiative to rebuild their own lives on their own terms, in safe and realistic ways, rather than waiting for the go-ahead from public officials.”