I don't understand anti-vaxxers.

[Aristus]

24. If you re-read what I wrote, nowhere did I say modern medicine was perfect.

And no, I don’t take every medication advertised on TV. No one does, and you knew that when you wrote it. That was a bad argument. I certainly don’t prescribe every medication advertised on TV. I prescribe very conservatively, and only when conservative measures have failed.

It’s popular to bash medical providers as being obsessed only with money, and practicing medicine unethically toward that end. And there certainly are those providers out there. They get all the attention, and suck all the oxygen out of the room.

But most of us are simply giving our patients good care, and trying to alert them to all of the medical misinformation out there. We also try to correct skeptics who, sometimes out of the best of intentions, embrace and spread harmful beliefs and practices.

One of those is that the flu vaccine is a unnecessary money-maker for the pharmaceutical companies. When the truth is, there really is no profit in manufacturing vaccine. The drug companies distribute vaccine because it’s a public health requirement.

In a time of empty-headed contrary behavior, it can be tempting to thumb one’s nose at people who are working sincerely for the public good. But it’s harmful in the extreme.