Mikhail Varshavski

Varshavski was born on November 12, 1989, in Saransk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia) to a Jewish family.[2][3][4] He has an older sister, Dasha, and nephews named Daniel, Steven, and Ari.[5] His father was a physician, a graduate of the Third Medical Institute of Moscow,[6] while his mother was a mathematics professor. When he was five, he and his family emigrated to Brooklyn.[7] In Brooklyn, his mother had to work sweeping floors for minimum wage, while his father attended medical school for the second time.[7] In an interview, he relayed that people thought he was not smart because he did not speak English.[8]

Varshavski was given the nickname "Doctor Mike" during his high school years by friends who came to him for sports-related injuries, knowing that Varshavski's father is a physician.[9] After seeing his father's relationship with his patients, he wanted to become a doctor.[8] He enrolled in the New York Institute of Technology and was accepted for an accelerated, seven-year combined track for a bachelor's degree in life sciences and a doctoral degree of osteopathic medicine. In 2014 he started residency at Atlantic Health System Overlook Medical Center’s Family Medicine program,[10] completing in 2017.[11] During his first year in the program, his mother died of leukemia.[8] He decided to move back in with his father and got a husky named Roxy.

In early 2012, Varshavski joined Instagram to document his life as a medical student and combat the notion that "you can't have a life in medical school".[8][12][13] He has said that he was not popular in high school and struggled to talk to girls, and that he was disorganized and unable to speak well in public.[8] In college, however, he committed himself to learning how to talk to girls and put himself outside of his comfort zone, including reading the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.[8]

Varshavski gained media attention in August 2015 when Buzzfeed published an article about him titled "Um, You Really Need To See This Hot Doctor And His Dog" that highlighted his good looks and his relationship with his dog, Roxy.[14] That November, People magazine named him "the Sexiest Doctor Alive" in its Sexiest Man Alive issue,[10] and his Instagram account became popular.[2] He lived on Staten Island at the time.[2]

In late 2015, Varshavski established a foundation, Limitless Tomorrow, to provide scholarships to students, and he has raised money for it by auctioning experiences with himself through his social media accounts.[13][15] In January 2016, the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel collaborated in a $10 raffle for a date with Varshavski; the campaign raised $91,000 for his foundation.[16]

In 2017, a year after he launched his YouTube channel, Varshavski gave a TEDx Talk on "The epidemic of the 'I Know It All' expert" at a TEDxMonteCarlo event. The video of that speech has been viewed nearly 2 million times.[11]

In 2018, after his residency, he joined Chatham Family Medicine, a family practice with Atlantic Health System, in Chatham, New Jersey

On November 12 2020,[17] Varshavski travelled to Miami and attended a beach party which was noteworthy for the number of people present and a lack of masks, both of which are against health guidelines. Footage leaked on Instagram went viral, particularly on Reddit.[18] On November 18, Varshavski uploaded an apology video on his second channel, Doctor Mike Clips, which has just over 70,000 followers, as opposed to his main channel which carries the bulk of his YouTube following at 6.49 million followers. He said that he went to Miami to visit his father but then his friends surprised him with a yacht as a birthday present. He checked medical guidelines, which apparently stated that he is allowed to go to the beach and party. He did not mention the two-week quarantine mandated by CDC guidelines both on arrival in Miami and return to New York, nor that guidelines warn against non-essential travel. A representative had told Inside Edition that all guidelines were followed at the party and Varshavski "took off his mask only when getting in and out of the water",[19] despite video and photographic evidence to the contrary. However, he followed up with "Even considering all [the guidelines], it doesn't matter. I messed up. [...] I need to do better." He reflected on the plausible impact of his trip, that he could "harm" the words of encouragement he has been delivering during the pandemic. He said that he felt he deserved the negative comments but warned misinformation spreaders not to use his actions to justify misinformation. He said that he has been taking time to reflect on himself.[20] His actions were criticized by medical professionals: James Todaro said that it was "hypocrisy at its finest. Apparently the famous ‘Dr Mike' doesn't care about ‘grandma' when it comes to birthdays and bikinis."[21] Tuko's Doglas Mwarua said that Varshavski was "craving for social media likes and comments...risking [lives] all in the name of looking for perfect selfies and videos for their social media pages" and "has learnt the hard way."[17]

In July 2019, Varshavski spread awareness for the humanitarian organization, Save a Child's Heart, by posting a photo with the organization's 5,000th patient while on a trip to Israel.[22] In March 2020, he donated $50,000 worth of N95 masks in the face of shortages for medical personnel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[23]

Varshavski won the 2020 Webby Awards for Education & Discovery, as well as for Health & Fitness in the category Social.[24]