Michelle Cohen
@docmcohen.medsky.social
rural Ontario family doc | writer | Family Medicine @queensuhealth.bsky.social | she/her
Health equity, health policy, wellness pseudoscience, women's health, history of medicine.
🔗 https://informedperspectives.org/expert/?id=001fK00000INrSnQAL
Health equity, health policy, wellness pseudoscience, women's health, history of medicine.
🔗 https://informedperspectives.org/expert/?id=001fK00000INrSnQAL
Pinned
Michelle Cohen
@docmcohen.medsky.social
· Sep 11
How Hollywood’s obsession with the ‘Dry Look’ harms men and boys - Healthy Debate
Increasingly distorted male beauty standards have come to celebrate visible dehydration as a physical ideal.
healthydebate.ca
NEW: I wrote about the physical and psychological harms of Hollywood male beauty standards that idealize dehydration.
Can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to discuss their medical history with one of these grinning idiots.
Are they disappointed when people with mobility aids, prosthetics, or wigs also don't want to talk?
Go back to LOL'ing about shared air & wondering why no one relates to your politics, boys
Are they disappointed when people with mobility aids, prosthetics, or wigs also don't want to talk?
Go back to LOL'ing about shared air & wondering why no one relates to your politics, boys
Disappointed to see Jon Stewart & co joke about masking in public. I do it for my medically fragile daughter (Batten Disease). People not masking properly led to her getting pneumonia, which led to her being on life support, which led to me getting price quotes on her cremation just in case.
December 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to discuss their medical history with one of these grinning idiots.
Are they disappointed when people with mobility aids, prosthetics, or wigs also don't want to talk?
Go back to LOL'ing about shared air & wondering why no one relates to your politics, boys
Are they disappointed when people with mobility aids, prosthetics, or wigs also don't want to talk?
Go back to LOL'ing about shared air & wondering why no one relates to your politics, boys
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
It was reprehensible when people mocked condom usage at the height of the AIDS pandemic.
It is just as depraved to mock those wearing masks to reduce the spread of airborne viruses today.
Whenever someone takes any kind of step to protect public health, they should be applauded, not mocked.
It is just as depraved to mock those wearing masks to reduce the spread of airborne viruses today.
Whenever someone takes any kind of step to protect public health, they should be applauded, not mocked.
December 28, 2025 at 8:46 PM
It was reprehensible when people mocked condom usage at the height of the AIDS pandemic.
It is just as depraved to mock those wearing masks to reduce the spread of airborne viruses today.
Whenever someone takes any kind of step to protect public health, they should be applauded, not mocked.
It is just as depraved to mock those wearing masks to reduce the spread of airborne viruses today.
Whenever someone takes any kind of step to protect public health, they should be applauded, not mocked.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
quick summary of what this is:
Conservative government in Alberta criminally underfunds healthcare causing the death of a man.
Billionaire conservative who financed Trump uses man's death for political purposes.
Conservative rag owned by Americans also uses the tragedy for political purposes.
Conservative government in Alberta criminally underfunds healthcare causing the death of a man.
Billionaire conservative who financed Trump uses man's death for political purposes.
Conservative rag owned by Americans also uses the tragedy for political purposes.
You don't often see a single image that so perfectly captures everything that's wrong with Canadian politics, media, and health care. A clusterfuck of awful.
December 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM
quick summary of what this is:
Conservative government in Alberta criminally underfunds healthcare causing the death of a man.
Billionaire conservative who financed Trump uses man's death for political purposes.
Conservative rag owned by Americans also uses the tragedy for political purposes.
Conservative government in Alberta criminally underfunds healthcare causing the death of a man.
Billionaire conservative who financed Trump uses man's death for political purposes.
Conservative rag owned by Americans also uses the tragedy for political purposes.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
The Toronto Sun: making everything worse since 1971 🏆
You don't often see a single image that so perfectly captures everything that's wrong with Canadian politics, media, and health care. A clusterfuck of awful.
December 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The Toronto Sun: making everything worse since 1971 🏆
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
Toronto Sun. 🙄
You don't often see a single image that so perfectly captures everything that's wrong with Canadian politics, media, and health care. A clusterfuck of awful.
December 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Toronto Sun. 🙄
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
He can, as they say, go fuck himself.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
December 28, 2025 at 12:54 PM
He can, as they say, go fuck himself.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
You don't often see a single image that so perfectly captures everything that's wrong with Canadian politics, media, and health care. A clusterfuck of awful.
December 28, 2025 at 12:49 PM
You don't often see a single image that so perfectly captures everything that's wrong with Canadian politics, media, and health care. A clusterfuck of awful.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
Changes & contributions to the gender pay gap in surgery in Canada
“women receive fewer procedural payments than men & tend to perform lower paying procedures. Reforms to referral systems & billing codes can help [address] the gender pay gap in surgery”
@docmcohen.medsky.social
“women receive fewer procedural payments than men & tend to perform lower paying procedures. Reforms to referral systems & billing codes can help [address] the gender pay gap in surgery”
@docmcohen.medsky.social
Changes and contributions to the gender pay gap in surgery in Canada: a repeated cross-sectional analysis from 1996 to 2020
Objectives Occupational gender segregation is a contributing factor to gender pay inequity in medicine but has not been thoroughly characterised. We assessed the historical relationship between surgeo...
bmjopen.bmj.com
December 28, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Changes & contributions to the gender pay gap in surgery in Canada
“women receive fewer procedural payments than men & tend to perform lower paying procedures. Reforms to referral systems & billing codes can help [address] the gender pay gap in surgery”
@docmcohen.medsky.social
“women receive fewer procedural payments than men & tend to perform lower paying procedures. Reforms to referral systems & billing codes can help [address] the gender pay gap in surgery”
@docmcohen.medsky.social
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
This is absolutely unacceptable. Jews need to resist having our pain turned into an engine of hatred and bigotry against Muslims. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Retribution fears as Australian Muslims see surge in Islamophobic hate since Bondi terror attack
Security stepped up at mosques amid spate of targeted abuse as leaders mourn Bondi victims and say community will not ‘claim victimhood’
www.theguardian.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:36 AM
This is absolutely unacceptable. Jews need to resist having our pain turned into an engine of hatred and bigotry against Muslims. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
December 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
Someone should sit the new members of ACIP down and explain what their job is and is not to them in simple terms, and maybe teach them some basic law. Dr. Malone's claims here have several misunderstandings. 1/n
December 24, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Someone should sit the new members of ACIP down and explain what their job is and is not to them in simple terms, and maybe teach them some basic law. Dr. Malone's claims here have several misunderstandings. 1/n
Breaking: seeing some (presumably non-white) teens at an "upscale mall" in Montreal makes this extremely fragile snowflake feel unsafe.
December 24, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Breaking: seeing some (presumably non-white) teens at an "upscale mall" in Montreal makes this extremely fragile snowflake feel unsafe.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
I'm perusing CPC MP Jamil Jivani's self-promoting "Restore the North" website (restore *what* exactly?), and I am just a bit creeped out by his unseemly obsession with young men:
December 24, 2025 at 12:13 PM
I'm perusing CPC MP Jamil Jivani's self-promoting "Restore the North" website (restore *what* exactly?), and I am just a bit creeped out by his unseemly obsession with young men:
![From Wikipedia:
During the leadership of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, psychiatry was used to disable and remove from society political opponents (Soviet dissidents) who openly expressed beliefs that contradicted the official dogma.[4][5] The term "philosophical intoxication", for instance, was widely applied to the mental disorders diagnosed when people disagreed with the country's Communist leaders and, by referring to the writings of the Founding Fathers of Marxism–Leninism—Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin—made them the target of criticism.[6] Another common pseudo-diagnosis was "sluggish schizophrenia".](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3dgtbbfojskkdbx5z3grje5r/bafkreigd3kvh5h5uzya43tc2ozh6mijekjq2cqkzw6to7hdtxmqdqg6rwy@jpeg)
The biggest wellness grift of all
the point of the MAHA takeover of the federal health bureaucracy is, more than anything, about repurposing that bureaucracy for corrupt self-dealing. it is not an accident that the Republicans' health care "plans" for the expiration of subsidies is uhhh (mumbling) something to do with FSAs
December 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The biggest wellness grift of all
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
i am never, ever, ever going to stop posting that Truemed is Calley Means's company and Calley Means is the MAHA power broker that introduced RFK Jr. to Trump. some 👏 conspiracies 👏 are 👏 real 👏
Another new a16z idea: giving letters of medical necessity to anybody so they can commit tax fraud
Between funding social media bot farms, crypto, and prediction markets, this company represents the new era where tech is mostly just for fraud
Between funding social media bot farms, crypto, and prediction markets, this company represents the new era where tech is mostly just for fraud
December 24, 2025 at 4:22 AM
i am never, ever, ever going to stop posting that Truemed is Calley Means's company and Calley Means is the MAHA power broker that introduced RFK Jr. to Trump. some 👏 conspiracies 👏 are 👏 real 👏
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
It’s like we just picked up where we left off. I’m still processing the history of the wellness industry & what we might expect from them in the future. With so many holes in trad medicine people are desperate for help, health & healing. Sad that this industry has specifically targeted women.
December 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
It’s like we just picked up where we left off. I’m still processing the history of the wellness industry & what we might expect from them in the future. With so many holes in trad medicine people are desperate for help, health & healing. Sad that this industry has specifically targeted women.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
@theresisters.bsky.social sat down with @docmcohen.medsky.social and had a fascinating discussion about the history of the wellness industry.
This article was a real eye opener about it roots. Txs @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social for shouting out the episode.
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
This article was a real eye opener about it roots. Txs @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social for shouting out the episode.
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
December 22, 2025 at 12:04 PM
@theresisters.bsky.social sat down with @docmcohen.medsky.social and had a fascinating discussion about the history of the wellness industry.
This article was a real eye opener about it roots. Txs @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social for shouting out the episode.
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
This article was a real eye opener about it roots. Txs @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social for shouting out the episode.
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
In episode 4 of their excellent podcast, @theresisters.bsky.social welcome family physican Dr. Michelle Cohen, who is also an assistant professor @queensu. They discuss the links between the far right & the wellness industry. They also discuss sexism in healthcare.
open.spotify.com/episode/1OOi...
open.spotify.com/episode/1OOi...
Episode 4: Women, Wellness and Wtf with Dr. Michelle Cohen
open.spotify.com
December 21, 2025 at 7:59 AM
In episode 4 of their excellent podcast, @theresisters.bsky.social welcome family physican Dr. Michelle Cohen, who is also an assistant professor @queensu. They discuss the links between the far right & the wellness industry. They also discuss sexism in healthcare.
open.spotify.com/episode/1OOi...
open.spotify.com/episode/1OOi...
Great work by @onschoolsafety.bsky.social advocating for something simple but essential: better air quality for kids and teachers.
Schools have become cesspools for cold and flu, but they don't have to be: Ontario School Safety
The volunteer organization Ontario School Safety is calling on the provincial government to improve air quality in schools as flu spreads.
ottawa.citynews.ca
December 22, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Great work by @onschoolsafety.bsky.social advocating for something simple but essential: better air quality for kids and teachers.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
Here are some lights to brighten up your feed during the solstice!
How do these animals produce their own light?
1/6 ⚛️🧪
How do these animals produce their own light?
1/6 ⚛️🧪
December 22, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Here are some lights to brighten up your feed during the solstice!
How do these animals produce their own light?
1/6 ⚛️🧪
How do these animals produce their own light?
1/6 ⚛️🧪
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
The current circulating strain(s) of influenza are causing severe morbidity & deaths in pregnant people and young children.
Vaccines are still available but it takes about 2 weeks for them to take effect. If you’re part of one of these populations, be cautious around holiday gatherings.
😷 💉
Vaccines are still available but it takes about 2 weeks for them to take effect. If you’re part of one of these populations, be cautious around holiday gatherings.
😷 💉
December 21, 2025 at 12:02 AM
The current circulating strain(s) of influenza are causing severe morbidity & deaths in pregnant people and young children.
Vaccines are still available but it takes about 2 weeks for them to take effect. If you’re part of one of these populations, be cautious around holiday gatherings.
😷 💉
Vaccines are still available but it takes about 2 weeks for them to take effect. If you’re part of one of these populations, be cautious around holiday gatherings.
😷 💉
I remember this too. It seemed so impossible for bars and restaurants to not be smoky cesspools, and then suddenly - they weren't!
And everyone realized that going out DIDN'T automatically mean going home with a headache & reeking of smoke. It was amazing how quickly any prior opposition dissolved.
And everyone realized that going out DIDN'T automatically mean going home with a headache & reeking of smoke. It was amazing how quickly any prior opposition dissolved.
I remember when they banned smoking in bars in Toronto in 2005 - people were so mad about it for like 3 weeks, then everyone, including smokers, realized that indoor smoking is gross and it was better this way. I spent the following summer in London (UK) and watched exactly the same process play out
December 21, 2025 at 1:02 PM
I remember this too. It seemed so impossible for bars and restaurants to not be smoky cesspools, and then suddenly - they weren't!
And everyone realized that going out DIDN'T automatically mean going home with a headache & reeking of smoke. It was amazing how quickly any prior opposition dissolved.
And everyone realized that going out DIDN'T automatically mean going home with a headache & reeking of smoke. It was amazing how quickly any prior opposition dissolved.
Reposted by Michelle Cohen
Yes!
Huge benefits from cleaning up the air that contacts our largest personal interface with the world around us (the surface area of the lungs) - and we can do the same again!
Huge benefits from cleaning up the air that contacts our largest personal interface with the world around us (the surface area of the lungs) - and we can do the same again!
The next leap forward: Clean air for Canadians
“Weak productivity is making life less affordable for Canadians and beginning to strain our government’s finances and starting to put at risk the social programs on which Canadians rely,” Prime Minist...
policyoptions.irpp.org
December 15, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Yes!
Huge benefits from cleaning up the air that contacts our largest personal interface with the world around us (the surface area of the lungs) - and we can do the same again!
Huge benefits from cleaning up the air that contacts our largest personal interface with the world around us (the surface area of the lungs) - and we can do the same again!