Study: You Can't Change an Anti-Vaxxer's Mind

[daredtowork]

119. There is also a lack of trust in doctors

As someone who has been through the medical system, I can express frustration myself that the doctor's goal is often very different than the patient. The medical system is now very fragmented. The doctor insists the patient can only be seen for one symptom at a time, and the appointments are stretched many months apart. This prevents adequate diagnosis, and the doctor also fails to get to know the patient personally. In poor areas, the doctor condescends to the patient.

The patient is there for:
1) Pain relief.
2) Treatment/cure of an ongoing condition.
3) Documentation of the condition in order to obtain access to resources.

The doctor seems to be there for:
1) To lecture the patient about lifestyle.
2) To consider only one symptom, which may or may not lead to diagnosis.
3) To refuse to prescribe pain relievers.
4) To be okay with no diagnosis of "vague symptoms" - just keep suggesting exercise while throwing medications at the problem to see what works.
5) If the patient requests diagnosis for purposes of paperwork/resources, the doctor becomes more disinclined to diagnose because the patient might be a "malingerer".

Somewhere in there the doctor forgot they were actually being employed by the patient and started patronizing the patient. And the patient stopped getting very much out of the relationship. Instead of pain relief and answers, the patient gets "the speech" about diet and exercise: and the bills just keep getting larger and larger for that privilege!

Is it any surprise that people become susceptible to "snake oil" doctors who will run "tests", and show "evidence" of the Big Conspiracy Something that caused all the health problems: pesticides in the water, contrails, electric wires, vaccines, you name it. There are actual doctors who are out there reinforcing the conspiratorial frame of mind and making a ton of money off of it!

But don't blame the patients or the snake oil salesmen.

Blame the medical system for utterly failing to serve patients and forcing them to turn elsewhere. At some point doctors have to get back to the idea that the patient is paying them, and they have to give the patient something in the realm of what the patient wants for that - something like pain relief, treatment, or diagnosis that works with State paperwork. They can't both "get paid" and skate on some high stratosphere above the patient's needs and wishes. What a fantasy that is! But it's the fantasy doctors are living right now. It seems that fantasy is collapsing around their ears as we speak.