Free speech group pushes Mayo Clinic over its discipline of Dr. Michael Joyner for 'problematic' statements

Jun. 9—ROCHESTER — Mayo Clinic's suspension of a high-profile doctor for using "idiomatic language" in media interviews that "reflects poorly" on Mayo Clinic's brand is at the center of a freedom of speech debate.

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a national nonpartisan and nonprofit organization focused on free speech, recently posted an article about Mayo Clinic disciplining Dr. Michael Joyner with an unpaid suspension for a week in March and withholding his scheduled raise.

Joyner's appeal of the disciplinary action is pending, according to his attorney, Kellie Miller. He remains employed by Mayo Clinic. Under Mayo Clinic rules, he cannot speak directly to the media about the situation.

Zach Greenberg, who wrote the FIRE article headlined "Mayo Clinic medical college to doctor: Sit down and shut up," described Mayo Clinic's action as "a gag order" and something from a "dystopian novel." A redacted version of Mayo Clinic's disciplinary letter to Joyner and correspondence between FIRE and Mayo Clinic were linked as attachments to Greenberg's article.

Mayo Clinic defended its actions as fitting the situation.

"Mayo Clinic remains fully committed to academic freedom and expression, as demonstrated by hundreds of media interviews provided by our physicians and scientists each year. This is a personnel issue between Dr. Joyner and Mayo as his private employer, and we will not comment further at this time," wrote Mayo Clinic Communications Director Andrea Kalmanovitz in response to the FIRE article.

Joyner, who started at Mayo Clinic as part of an internship in 1988, is known as an often outspoken expert about

fitness,

sports and the

convalescent plasma

to treat COVID-19.

In a

2016 Rochester Magazine profile titled "This person is a cheeky heretic,"

Mayo Clinic Proceedings Editor-in-Chief Dr. William Lanier praised Joyner's challenging approach to communication.

"Whether you agree with him or not, it is always entertaining to hear his ideas, and he is the type of scientist and colleague who constantly encourages us to challenge our thinking as he challenges his own thinking," Lanier stated at the time.

A redacted Mayo Clinic disciplinary letter posted by FIRE cited two specific instances in which Joyner did not follow Mayo Clinic's communications policy. In June 2022, he made comments in a New York Times article about the long-term effects of testosterone on transgender female athletes.

The New York Times quoted Joyner as saying, "There are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it. Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla." Mayo Clinic's letter described those statements as "problematic in the media and the LGBTQI+ community at Mayo Clinic."

The Mayo Clinic letter also cited an appearance by Joyner on CNN in January 2023, in which Joyner was quoted as saying that he was "frustrated" with the National Institute of Health's "bureaucratic rope-a-dope" and its acting as a "wet blanket" toward the use of convalescent plasma as a COVID treatment.

"The fact that your selection of idiomatic expressions continues has caused the institution to question whether you are able to appropriately represent Mayo Clinic in media interactions," according to the letter from Dr. Carlos Mantilla, the chair of the Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine Department.

The Mayo Clinic letter also stated, "It is unacceptable that you fail to consistently act in a professional manner with your Communications colleagues, abide by their direction, and accept the expertise they bring to the practice."

Greenberg, who wrote the FIRE article, told the Post Bulletin that his organization got involved when Joyner reached out to it in March.

Working with the Allen Harris law firm that focuses on free speech issues on college campuses, FIRE started a correspondence with Mayo Clinic challenging its disciplining of Joyner because "faculty have the right to speak as private citizens on matters of public concern, which is precisely what Joyner did when sharing his expertise with the media."

FIRE and Allen Harris are best known for their work on free speech issues on college campuses. FIRE was outspoken in 2022 about the University of St. Thomas blocking a campus Republican group's plan to bring in a speaker known for negative views about transgender issues.

Greenberg and Joyner's attorney, Miller, who works for Allen Harris, frame the current situation as a college censoring a professor due to Mayo Clinic's self-description as operating "exclusively for educational purposes" in

its lawsuit with IRS.

Being classified as a university allowed Mayo Clinic to be exempt from paying taxes on real estate revenue. Nonprofit hospitals are not exempt.

"Mayo recently successfully represented in court and achieved official recognition as an educational institution for tax purposes (Mayo Clinic v. United States.) As such, they promise academic freedom to their faculty. But Mayo Clinic has media policies, which, as they have been applied, directly conflict with their representation as an educational institution and their promises of academic freedom," wrote Miller about the case. "Mayo's media policies require Dr. Joyner and other faculty to receive prior approval before speaking freely about their own research and also subject faculty to arbitrary punishment for statements about their own research if those statements impact Mayo's brand. Despite numerous requests, Mayo has not clarified their policies."

Mayo Clinic pushed back against this idea saying that it was the clinic that disciplined Joyner, not its educational arm.

"It is unfortunate that FIRE has mischaracterized this situation with incorrect and inaccurate information. The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science did not take any action against Dr. Joyner," wrote Kalmanovitz.