‘Pakistanis don’t kill their patients’: Anti-vaccination advocates spark controversy by blaming medical staff for being foreigners

A debate over diversity in medical training has erupted after an anti-vaccination activist criticized a Texas hospital residency program for recruiting only international graduates.Mary Talley Bowden posted on X and commented on the upcoming internal medicine residency at Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. Her post mentioned that all 13 first-year internal medicine trainees were international medical graduates, six of whom were from medical schools in Pakistan. Some of them are also from India. It raises concerns because there is a complete absence of U.S. medical graduates from this particular group.This residency program is based in a community hospital that serves a large regional population and fills its positions through the National Residency Matching Program. Public information shows the names and medical schools for 2025 admissions. The class includes doctors from Jordan, the United Kingdom, Syria, Egypt, India and Pakistan, all of whom graduated from non-U.S. medical schools.Bowden is a board-certified ear, nose and throat surgeon in Houston, founder of BreatheMD and a well-known advocate against vaccine mandates.Her post drew a response on social media from commentator Richard Hanania. Hanania responded: “It’s funny because this woman is anti-vaxxer. At least Pakistanis don’t kill their patients.”The exchange touched on sensitive issues such as medical training, immigration and patient safety. Social media users said Bowden’s post unfairly named doctors because they were trained abroad and promoted stereotypes about international medical graduates. Historical match data shows that Beaumont’s internal medicine program has a high percentage of international graduates compared to the national average, with approximately 44% of internal medicine positions typically held by international medical graduates.