Abdul El-Sayed, running as a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, is highlighting his role as a public health official who aimed to serve everyday citizens. Yet, some of his scholarly work in public health appears to challenge typical American values, often cloaked in academic language.
“The biggest issue I’ve been dedicating my time to fixing is that far too many people in this country lack access to the health care they need and deserve,” he stated during a campaign event, drawing on his experience as the leading public health official in Detroit and Wayne County.
El-Sayed shared on social media, “I’m a doctor and a dad. I reformed Detroit’s health department and led Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. We provided glasses for children, confronted large corporate polluters, and worked to eliminate medical debt. I’m campaigning because it shouldn’t be so difficult to make ends meet in the richest country in the world.”
However, his academic research has some pointed focus. Multiple peer-reviewed articles coauthored by him suggest that Arabs living in ethnically homogenous neighborhoods in the U.S. enjoy better health outcomes. He has often argued that “acculturation,” which refers to the adoption of the dominant society’s values and lifestyles, can negatively impact the health of Arabs in America.
His research even hints that white neighbors might be a health risk.
Ian Kingsbury, a senior director at the Center for Accountability in Medicine, commented that El-Sayed’s stance is quite radical as it seems to promote a form of Arab separatism, wrapped in scientific language.
The El-Sayed campaign had no comment when approached for feedback.
In his studies, he compared health outcomes in Dearborn, a city with a significant Arab population, against other Michigan areas, arguing that Arab residents living among fellow community members experienced fewer low-weight births.
“As ethnic minorities navigate life in the USA and interact with the white majority, they tend to acculturate,” the research indicates. “This process might lead them to adopt cultural traits from the dominant group, potentially reducing their protection against low-weight births.”
In another paper from 2008, he suggested that Arab mothers in Michigan didn’t experience high rates of low-weight births due to discrimination following September 11th, attributing it instead to strong social cohesion among densely populated Arab communities. The findings implied that this social bonding might confer positive health benefits.
In a 2009 study contrasting the lifespans of Arabs and whites, he called for further investigation into how American assimilation affects the health of Arabs.
A later 2011 paper took a different turn, positing that Arab culture might be less healthy than white culture, referencing stereotypes about Arabs’ perceptions of beauty and weight.
Critics argue that these types of epidemiological studies often project simplistic ethnic stereotypes under a guise of scholarly authority.
A criticism from 2003 suggested that cultural understanding in this research often reduces ethnic identities to vague traits held by group members. This is a significant problem in racial and ethnic studies, which, being heavily ideological, often escape the thorough scrutiny typical of academic research.
Kingsbury raised concerns about the research methodology as well. In the 2010 paper, while investigating if Arab density in a community impacted health, they controlled for assimilation factors like immigration status.
His analogy? “It’s like evaluating a baseball team’s performance while factoring out hitting, catching, and pitching.”
While acknowledging some limitations, including the lack of consideration for socioeconomic statuses beyond the mother’s education, El-Sayed and his coauthor didn’t clarify how their analysis might change with different variables included.
“Honestly, this is subpar scholarship that doesn’t uphold the conclusions drawn,” Kingsbury expressed. “The quality of research in public health is frequently dismal, and the peer review process seems biased towards ideological agreement rather than rigorous standards.”
On the other hand, some academics have defended El-Sayed’s work.
Sally Satel, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that El-Sayed has collaborated with Dr. Sandro Galea, who is well-respected in public health circles and serves as the dean of the School of Public Health at Washington University. “To me, these papers seem solid,” she remarked.
Dr. Galea did not reply to requests for his comments.
