Esther Choo, a doctor and health columnist with the American news organisation MSNBC, tweeted on Wednesday, November 23, a day before Thanksgiving that the holiday should be cancelled and Christmas should get postponed. The emergency physician’s tweet drew a great deal of backlash with many wondering if she was joking or being serious with her proposal. 

Choo, who often speaks out on racism and sexism within the medical profession, tweeted that Thanksgiving should be cancelled for so many reasons and winter holidays should be moved to summer and it should be more “hygge” or cosy. In an apparently lighter vein,Choo said moving holidays to the summers would end “bad holiday-themed sweaters.” 

The tweet drew a flurry of responses, including from politically relevant people in the United States. 

Christina Pushaw, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Rapid Response Director, slammed Choo, tweeting: “May I suggest, we cancel “public health” tyrants instead?”

Who is Esther Choo? 

Esther Choo is an emergency physician and a professor at the Oregon Health & Science University. A popular science commentator, Choo is the president of the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine and is also a member of the American Association of Emergency Physicians. 

She was the founder and board member of Time’s Up, a non-profit group that raises money to support victims of sexual harassment. The organisation was created in response to the MeToo movement in Hollywood. 

Esther Choo’s parents migrated from Korea to the United States in the 1960s. In 1994, Choo graduated from Yale College with a degree in English. She then worked as an intern at The Plain Dealer, a Cleveland-based newspaper. She subsequently went on to study medicine and earned a degree from Yale University in 2001. 

Esther Choo was a resident at Boston Medical Center. In 2009, she graduated from Oregon Health & Science University with a master’s degree in public health (MPH). 

In 2012, Esther Choo won the Outstanding Physician Award from the University Emergency Medicine Foundation. Choo’s research interests include developing interventions for women who experience intimate partner violence.