12/03/2020
From colleague Amy Lewis:
For those of you who have seen Justice Gorsuch' flippant remark about acupuncture when writing a dissent on the religious exemption during a pandemic, I felt obligated to respond. Many of our colleagues at the state association are also writing letters. Here is mine:
Dear Justice Gorsuch
I read with disappointment your written dissent on the religious organization pandemic exemption case. Your comparison of acupuncture as equal to liquor and hardware stores is inaccurate, misleading, and makes us question your ability to rule on important issues surrounding healthcare in America.
As a Doctor of Acupuncture, practicing for over two decades, I would be happy to share the many medical research articles and NIH publications proving why acupuncture is considered essential healthcare. I think that it might help you to understand the next time you decide to write something that will be on record in perpetuity. For future decisions, I highly suggest that you research facts so that you may then gain knowledge of the subjects about which you write.
First, while you might not be personally aware, acupuncture and Chinese medicine is an entire system of medicine, used broadly around the world and gaining mainstream recognition in the United States. Insurance companies cover it now (I am pretty clear that they do not do this for altruistic reasons but because it lowers the overall costs of healthcare thereby increasing profit), the Military now teaches soldiers to provide acupuncture points to the wounded on the battle field to help stabilize pain in route to field hospitals, sometimes hours away. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are at the forefront of treatment for COVID-19, with a recently written article in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine about adding Chinese Medicine to the COVID hospital protocols (see attached).
With my office being only two blocks from the White House, I have treated some of your colleagues, many lawmakers, and members of both Republican and Democrat administrations. I have even been the team acupuncturist for the (now) Washington Football Team. You might want to check with some of your friends, associates and colleagues to understand more fully that they have come for cancer care, for symptom relief during COVID, for fertility, for pain management as well as stress and anxiety, depression and migraine relief.
As president of the Acupuncture Society of Washington, DC, I represent the almost 200 practitioners in the District, some of whom are also western medical doctors. Our schooling, much like the JD that you hold, requires both undergraduate and graduate degrees. As a matter of fact, my clinical Doctoral degree included 10 years of undergrad and grad school combined.
Americans expect and deserve, in our Supreme Court justices, more thoughtful and intellectually rigorous pursuit of facts when making decisions at the highest level. I would be happy to meet with you and help you understand the distinction between a liquor store and a medical practice. By the way, October 24, 2020 was declared by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, Acupuncture Medicine Day in the District of Columbia (see attached proclamation) due to its ability to reach underserved communities that might not otherwise have access to healthcare.
Very truly yours,
Dr. Amy Lewis, D.Ac., Dipl. Ac..
