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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 1h

He’s named in the files many times related to Epstein’s urology appointments. Paduch is one of the physicians and academics in Epstein’s web.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 15h

in good standing, despite a pattern of abusing patients. He went to Long Island to work at Northwell Health until his arrest. This is how abusive doctors are passed from org to org. It’s how hospitals cover for doctors rather than holding abusers accountable.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 15h

The letter is interesting not because it was addressed to Epstein, but because it was about Dr. Paduch - a serial abuser of his patients including kids. All of paddock’s patients will have received a letter like this. With the letter doesn’t say is that Paduch was allowed to leave Cornell

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 16h

Yes. The highlight of the letter isn’t that it was sent to Epstein. It’s that Epstein’s urologist sexually abused his patients, including many minors. Weill Cornell protected Paduch for years after the complaints began. They allowed him to quietly leave Weill Cornell is 2019 instead of firing him.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 16h

It’s not just Cornell. It’s nearly every university.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

allowed to leave his position at Weill Cornell in 2019 rather than being fired. This made it possible for paddock to move on to work at a hospital in Long Island for Northwell Health. He worked as a urologist there until his arrest in 2023.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

It is a form letter. The reason that it’s important is actually not that it was sent to Jeffrey Epstein. The reason it’s important is because Cornell had been receiving complaints about paddock’s own sexually predatory behavior towards patients, including children since 2012. Paduch was

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

Darius Paduch was Jeffrey Epstein’s urologist. Paduch is also a sexually abusive physician who worked at Cornell for years. In 2024, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. Paduch abused at least 50 identified victims, many of whom were minors.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

Institute for Safe Patient Care and Patient Empowerment to prevent sexual abuse at hospitals nationwide. Paduch is named in the Epstein files many times. Most of these are related to scheduling his own urology appointments, but not all. Medicine is complicit in clinical rape culture (CRC).

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

Long Island until 2023, when he was arrested. The feds settled the criminal case against Weill Cornell in a confidential agreement, which said the hospital system apparently agreed to pay over $1 billion to settle claims from victims. Weill Cornell also committed $30 million to create an

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

as early as 2012 but Cornell protected him until 2019. Weill Cornell didn’t fire him in 2019. They allowed him to leave his position, even providing a recommendation to Northwell Health. That’s when this form letter was sent to all of Paduch’s patients. Paduch worked at Northwell in

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

For folks who aren’t aware, Darius Paduch was a sexually abusive physician who worked at Cornell for years. In 2024, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes. Paduch abused at least 50 identified victims, many of whom were minors. Complaints against Paduch started

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23h

Cornell protected sexual abusive physician Paduch between 2007-2019 despite multiple complaints about his behavior. When Cornell sent this letter, Paduch transferred to work at Northwell Health in Long Island, where he worked from 2019-2023. In 2023, he was arrested for multiple counts of abuse.

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · 03/10/2026

The reason Epstein’s urologist would no longer be seeing patients at Cornell is he was abusing boys. Paduch was sentenced to life in prison. But Cornell wanted to make sure Epstein saw one of their other physicians instead of leaving Cornell. In 2019!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ht @alyssaburgart.com

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · 02/10/2026

We teach a class on campus sexual assault, and @alyssaburgart.com is an anesthesiologist. So if you’re looking for experts to break down Title IX, rape culture, and capacity to consent, this is the episode for you.

podcasts.apple.com

Why is Jane Doe suing Cornell and Seven Students?

Podcast Episode · The Present Illness · October 2 · 1h 16m

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 02/10/2026

Why do universities protect rapists? What happened at Cornell? What is Title IX? How does ketamine impact capacity to consent? @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social and I discuss Cornell and seven students being sued by survivor Jane Doe on our podcast, The Present Illness.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 17/09/2026

Dr. Arghavan Salles is suing the NIH over banned words in research. “Scientists should not have to scrub their research to receive federal funding, particularly after taxpayers have already invested years in supporting this work.” Follow her: @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social

aclu.org

Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union

Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 24/08/2026

Whoa that is weird! Episodes are free and open access. 😬

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 23/08/2026

Yes! So sorry you’re having trouble. I just checked Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. They all seem to be working, but if you have any pre details on the error message, I can try to see if there some other hidden issue. 🙏

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 10/05/2026

What the fuck. This child should never have been separated from his parents. Down with ICE. Close EVERY detention center.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 10/05/2026

Part of what surprised me is that Patrick Stewart (co-Star Trek star) has used his celebrity to bring awareness to SA, violence against women and children in the home and is a long time ambassador Of Refuge in the UK.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 08/05/2026

I also didn’t love that part. I understand why it gets a laugh. But having been abused, it didn’t land for me.

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · 08/05/2026

Such a privilege to get to hear from the incredible LeVar Burton tonight with @alyssaburgart.com! My favorite line was when he said that his mom was such a proponent of reading that in his house you either read a book or got hit by one 🤣

Photo of LeVar Burton standing in front of a Stanford Graduate School of Education background

Photo of Alyssa and me wearing N95s holding a bookmark that says “An evening with LeVar Burton” in an auditorium filled with people

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 04/05/2026

It will never not be weird when a social media company reminds me that it's my dead friend's birthday. Or would have been. I feel it in my gut when I see how many of their "friends" have no idea this person died almost 10 years ago.

media.tenor.com

Black GIF

Alt: I'm just gonna change into my funeral blacks.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

Yet another example of “the cruelty is the point.”

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

The current order is on hold and the ACLU is fighting it. But at least 19 prisons have not complied and continue to deny gender affirming care to incarcerated people.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

While the government plans to make the rules, it will be prison doctors and nurses used as tools to deny patients their most basic right to access care. Just like using physicians to prevent access to abortion, the state uses physicians to prevent access to gender affirming care.

It is the professional obligation of health care workers to ensure that patients benefit from the therapies they are providing, that they are not harmed; that patients get to make decisions for themselves that are in their own best interest; and that all patients receive just access to care.

These are the four most basic principles of bioethics. This policy appears to violate every single one of them.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

The irony of this situation while RFK Jr and his clown car of public health officials claim to want to increase shared decision making is not lost on me.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

The government’s policy claims to incorporate informed consent, but when patients are blatantly denied access to care that’s working for them - consent is impossible.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

Just like California prisons violated patients’ autonomy through forced, unconsented sterilization, the federal system aims to force patients to detransition.

Cal Matters headline: ‘I would have been a great mom’: California finally pays reparations to woman it sterilized (2024)

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

They know what the result will be - the suffering, misery, and death of trans people. This plan violates the most basic tenants of bioethics.

Further, she noted that the administrative record included papers on data collection and studies related to trans suicide risk.

"It's strongly suggested that the BOP expects an increase in trans suicides, and rather than preventing these outcomes, it wants to sit by and collect the data," Vaca wrote.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 19/04/2026

The Trump administration aims to withhold gender-affirming care for incarcerated transgender people. A rumor circulated that it was “medical experimentation,” but the government has no research question. @raesdeng.bsky.social @snopes.com

I suppose you could call it an experiment to see how many more trans people are profoundly harmed and perhaps killed in the prison system - Burgart said

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social · 18/04/2026

Episode 29 is live! @alyssaburgart.com spoke with special guest Dr. Lara Jones about what’s happening in ICE detention centers and her work to free the children detained there. Even if you think you know what’s happening, I’d recommend listening to learn from Dr. Jones’s insights.

podcasts.apple.com

Shut Down Dilley Detention Center with Dr. Lara Jones

Podcast Episode · The Present Illness · April 17 · 57m

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 17/04/2026

“A child who isn't eating and who has a fever needs to go see a doctor. Why isn't he being brought to a doctor?” From The Present Illness podcast: Shut Down Dilley Detention Center with Dr. Lara Jones, Apr 17, 2026 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

Shut Down Dilley Detention Center with Dr. Lara Jones

Podcast Episode · The Present Illness · April 17 · 57m

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 13/04/2026

And it’s so wonderful! I am so glad you wrote this book! 🙏🙌

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Abigail Thorn @theabigailthorn.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

The latest episode of Philosophy Tube is about conversion therapy, why it’s still legal in the UK, and the ways the British government is implicated in it making it NHS policy. Proud to expose this stuff ✊ youtu.be/_S5w18sjYLk?...

youtu.be

How To Ban Conversion Therapy

YouTube video by Philosophy Tube

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 15/02/2026

I have not but my partner keeps wanting to watch it. So many I need to do that 🤣 🚀

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 15/02/2026

⚠️ PSA - don’t take health advice from people who snort cocaine off toilet seats. We are truly living in Idiocracy, and you can thank RFK Jr. for this outbreak.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 04/02/2026

We’re not backing down. Patients come first.

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 04/02/2026

To a degree, it’s a badge of honor when these horrid groups are threatened by sound ethical reasoning supporting the people most impacted. It’s also really really annoying that we have to think about them at all.

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Margaret G @mls0308.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

February 13th is the new deadline for the DHS funding bill. 🚨🚨🚨 New script at 5calls.org #Pinks #ProudBlue

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Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 03/02/2026

Now being targeted by Libs of TT. I will always put the dignity of our patients first. I will not stop speaking out for the nuanced, personalized clinical care our patients deserve.

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Reposted by Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)

Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix) @alyssaburgart.com · 30/01/2026

Please make public comments opposing these bans. Trans and non-binary kids need access to expert care, not hatred from the government ⬇️

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