Dr. Bennet Omalu has written a scathing rebuttal to an article in The Washington Post that labels him a fraud. The notable Nigerian American neuropathologist is prominently credited with discovering and naming chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, which is a traumatic brain injury disease that leads to violent behavior and other severe issues. Omalu said it comes from contact sports but the Post’s national sports reporter, William Hobbs, says it’s not so.
Hobbs outlined numerous examples as to why he believes Omalu’s claims are a fluke in an article entitled “From scientist to salesman: How Bennet Omalu, doctor of ‘Concussion’ fame, built a career on distorted science.” The lengthy piece includes testimony from other CTE experts, former colleagues who worked with Omalu, and even judges who say many of Omalu’s claims about CTE “don’t make sense.”
Hobbs wrote: “But across the brain science community, there is wide consensus on one thing: Omalu, the man considered by many the public face of CTE research, routinely exaggerates his accomplishments and dramatically overstates the known risks of CTE and contact sports, fueling misconceptions about the disease, according to interviews with more than 50 experts in neurodegenerative disease and brain injuries, and a review of more than 100 papers from peer-reviewed medical journals.”
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It is a critique Omalu did not take laying down. In his own blog post on LinkedIn titled “We Are Becoming A Nation of Lies,” Omalu called the article “a takedown and hit-piece on me based on lies” that “is blatantly false.”
“I do not understand why a highly respected news organization will allow their international reputation and platform to be used to propagate lies about an American who has sacrificed so much to make a difference in the lives of other Americans,” Omalu wrote.
He went on to detail how he “was rejected, ridiculed and dismissed by the NFL, NHL, WWE, and by established and pre-eminent doctors across the United States.” While laying out his own lengthy points to back up his claims, he asked why Hobbs and the other medical experts he interviewed insisted to continue trying to discredit him 20 years after he’s already lost everything.
“Why the Washington Post will choose to denigrate, diminish, ridicule and dismiss the work of a black immigrant physician like myself I do not know. I have really been bruised and burnt repeatedly because I examined Mike Webster’s brain. I lost it all at some point and ran away from Pennsylvania to California to begin a new life with nothing but my courage and faith in Christ. Yet the attacks continue almost 20 years after I met Mike Webster. Therefore, I still maintain that I wish I never met Mike Webster. My life would have been much better and simpler without vexations like staying up all night to write this response.”
Omalu is frequently called upon to serve as an expert witness in legal cases involving CTE and hired as a keynote speaker on the subject. He was also portrayed by Will Smith in the movie “Concussion,” which tells his CTE story.
Though his memoir is titled “The Truth Doesn’t Have A Side,” Omalu maintains when it comes to CTE, the truth is with him – and Hobbs and all the experts he interviewed have built their assault against him on lies.
“As a nation and society, we should have the courage to tell the truth no matter how difficult, painful or inconvenient it may be. … A society that lives by the truth shall survive by the truth. A society that lives by lies shall die by lies. We are better than this.”
