ROCHESTER, Minn. – Mayo Clinic issued a statement defending its discipline of anesthesiology researcher Michael Joyner, who claims in a lawsuit that the clinic wanted to shut him up for criticizing the clinic. Joyner’s scientific views had to do with disciplining him, the clinic said. The statement said that Joyner had rude to coworkers and treated them unprofessionally. The statement seemed to concede, however, that there had been lingering irritation with Joyner at Mayo’s highest levels. In 2020, at the height of the CoVid pandemic, Joyner gave Mayo an ultimatum for a $1 million-plus payment within 48 hours, the statement said. About Joyner’s claim that his academic freedom had been violated, Mayo said it has a 150-year record of promoting and protecting scientific research and academic freedom. Joyner is “disingenuously invoking academic freedom as a shield to escape accountability for actions that violate Mayo principles. About his criticism of the National Institutes of Health’s approval process, Mayo said that Joyner was expressing not a scientific opinion but “unprofessional personal frustration” with NIH for not recommending a CoVid therapy he had championed.
