Controversy erupted over diversity in medical training when an anti-vaccine campaigner criticized a Texas hospital’s residency program for only hiring international graduates.Mary Talley Bowden posted on X where she commented on internal medicine residents coming to Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. His post noted that all 13 first-year internal medicine trainees were international medical graduates, six of whom were from medical schools in Pakistan. Some of these were also from India. It attracted attention because of the complete absence of American medical graduates in that particular group.The residency program is based at a community hospital that serves a large regional population and fills its positions through a national resident matching program. Publicly available information shows the names and medical schools of 2025 admissions. This class includes doctors from Jordan, the United Kingdom, Syria, Egypt, India, and Pakistan, all of whom graduated from non-U.S. medical schools.Bowden is a Houston-based board-certified ear, nose and throat surgeon, founder of BreatheMD and a well-known advocate against vaccine mandates.Commentator Richard Hanania responded to his post on social media. In response, Hanania wrote: “This is ridiculous because this woman is an anti-vaxxer. At least Pakistanis wouldn’t kill their patients.”Sensitive issues related to medical training, immigration and patient safety were discussed in this exchange. Social media users said Bowden’s post unfairly exposed doctors because they trained abroad and promoted stereotypes about international medical graduates. Historical matching data shows that the Beaumont Internal Medicine program has a higher proportion of international graduates than the national average, with approximately 44 percent of internal medicine positions typically filled by international medicine graduates.
