Thursday, October 21, 2010

Remember When The Third World Envied Us?

Permit me to get out the soapbox. (kids, wiki the term. I'll wait).

Children are dying in the US because for some unfathonable reason, people think MDs with 10 years of higher education and 3-4 years minimum in the field can't be trusted. Things they do trust:  the internet, gossip from the guy two doors down whose name he can't remember, any idiot actress/stripper on TV, old wives tales, cartoon bears on bathroom hygene, a crackpot relative who heard from a friend of a relative who knows a person who heard....., the list is endless.   But doctors, what do they know?

Here's what I know. 
1) You don't trust your doctor? FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR. Doctors are people, so find one you can work with. You'd do that with your mechanic, right?
2) Don't blindly accept medical information from a source that routinely, without your permission, fills your inbox with promises of riches and a larger penis courtesy of a Nigerian prince.
3) Don't let nonsense get passed on if you can stop it. Hear some nonsense at a party? Challenge it-- the source, the logic, whatever it takes to stamp it out. Lose a friend, save a child.
4) If you're on TV its because you want to be on TV.  If you're in a clinic treating the sick, its because you want to be in a clinc treating the sick. Only one of these is a calling.  You figure it out.
5) The Great Physician heals in an infinite number of ways, and the gift of folks who choose to toil long years in labs to rid the world of disease is one of those ways.

I'm not a doctor but I've stood by one for years. I don't tell her about the reports on the news channels about whooping cough killing babies in the US, because she would drag herself out of bed, tie the
oxygen tank to her wheelchair and roll herself  door to door and BONK YOU ON THE HEAD for even THINKING your child does not need their immunizations. And she needs her rest.

Soapbox retracted. Now back to my pithy, witty, humorous, and supeficial posts you've all come to expect. (Just go with it. You want me to get the box back out?)

Now, about those flu shots you've been putting off...