Thomas Jefferson University chief executive Joseph Cacchione condemned Mark Tykocinski, the president of the private research school in Philadelphia, for using his Twitter account to like posts deemed controversial by leftists, such as a tweet saying gender transition surgeries are tantamount to child mutilation.
Cacchione wrote in a Sunday email message to employees and students reviewed by The Daily Wire that Tykocinski, a veteran physician who received training at New York University, was “held to a higher standard and should have known better” than to execute his “careless use of the platform.” The message came in response to a report published last week by the Philadelphia Inquirer, which examined several months of the official’s social media history.
Attached to the email was an apology letter from Tykocinski which said that he had “unintentionally offended many” through his use of social media. “Please be assured this will be a learning experience, and I will grow as a person and professional from this misstep.”
Tykocinski had liked a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. expressing support for Chloe Cole, who said doctors persuaded her to undergo hormone treatments and a double mastectomy as a young teenager. The tweet encourages people to donate to Cole’s lawsuit “to help fight child mutilation.” He also liked a tweet from writer Alex Berenson, who called the mRNA vaccines “overhyped, rushed, profit-driven Big Pharma flops with weak long-term efficacy and a lousy side effect profile,” and a tweet linking to a Wall Street Journal article critical of the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement.
Cacchione added in the email that Thomas Jefferson University believes that a “diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment is fundamental to our mission” and that “the vaccines saved countless lives,” noting that the school maintained a “requirement for our employees and students to be vaccinated in an effort to keep our community safe and healthy.”
Two employees of Thomas Jefferson University, who spoke with The Daily Wire on the condition of anonymity, balked at the efforts to condemn Tykocinski’s social media use.
“I am appalled at the thought that simply liking a post could cause such a firestorm,” one employee said. “It is an inherent right as an American citizen to have freedom of speech; liking a post that questions a broadly argued topic is no exception.”
“In an effort to save his job at the cost of his convictions, he’s likely to lose both in the end, anyway,” the other employee added in response to the apology letter. “Child mutilation is big business for hospitals too. Therefore thou shalt not call it into question.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
The industry surrounding transgender surgeries is expected to become a $5 billion market by the end of the decade, according to a recent analysis from Grand View Research. The Daily Wire obtained video footage last year showing a Vanderbilt University doctor noting the windfall such procedures can generate for the school’s health system: “chest reconstruction” surgeries can earn $40,000 each, and “female-to-male bottom surgeries” can produce $100,000 each. Another Vanderbilt professor called religious objections “problematic” and said that physicians who refuse to perform the surgeries should face “consequences.”
Tykocinski is not the first medical professional to face censorship for expressing skepticism toward the conventional approach toward COVID vaccinations. Robert Malone, the scientist who pioneered the mRNA technology behind the inoculations, was suspended from Twitter early last year for raising concerns, while Jay Bhattacharya, a medicine and economics professor at Stanford University, has faced considerable pressure from administrators at the elite school and was likewise placed on a secret blacklist under the previous management of Twitter.
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, called the censorship of Tykocinski “absurd,” additionally rebuking Cacchione and the Thomas Jefferson University board of trustees.