Elon Musk stumps Don Lemon on why lowering standards for doctors would result in more deaths

The first episode of Don Lemon’s show premiered on Monday morning, during which X owner Elon Musk attempted to explain to the show’s namesake how lowering standards through things like DEI for those in the medical field could lead to more deaths. 

"Do you believe that people are dying because medical standards, DEI is causing medical standards to be lowered? Do you actually believe people are dying because of that?" Lemon asked Musk. 

Musk said he didn’t believe that it was an issue at present but "it could become an issue." 

"Okay, but the actual evidence in history shows the exact opposite. If you look at how minorities are treated by the medical system. Most doctors now are white. And there are lots of mistakes in medicine. So, you're saying that my doctors are - have bad medical care. I'm trying to understand your logic here. When it comes to DEI because there's no actual evidence of what you're saying," Lemon said.  

Musk used the example of a surgeon in training, saying that if this surgeon in training was asked to do a series of surgeries under the supervision of a senior surgeon and things still went wrong, yet they are still approved to be a surgeon, "the probability that someone will die" at some point is high. 

"I understand that. But that's a hypothetical. That doesn't mean it's happening," Lemon responded. 

"I didn't say what's happening," said Musk. 

"You didn’t say it was happening," Lemon replied. 

"I said it will. I said if we lower standards, people will die," said Musk. 

After additional back and forth, Musk added, "I’m very basically saying that if we lower standards for what it takes to become a board-certified surgeon, or, you know, oncologist or something where the kind of disease we're talking about, if you make a mistake, causes someone to die, then more people will die than if we don't lower the standards."