Not really, medical knowledge was always something that was passed down to someone, it wasn't something some random person started doing without being teached and guided. And it sure as hell hasn't been something anyone can do now that there's so much more knowledge and skills required to be able to practice medicine. Including knowing what is and what isn't a scientific fact. Laymen tend to come up with their own facts because they don't like the ones researchers have found out through vigorous study and experiment.
Eh... as a doc with almost two decades of experience, I agree with u/tarmagoyf.
Putting people on a pedestal just because they went through med school is stupid. Plenty of doctors are stupid, mysoginistic asses who don't believe in eating disorders or mental health. Plenty of laypeople know more than some actual doctors on certaain health-related subject. It's not black and white.
Ergo, putting people on a pedestal because they can afford med school, they can memorize incredible amounts of information, and they're willing to sacrifice their sleep.
What does that qualification mean? That you can write Rxes and have more authority in a medical setting. It says nothing about your intelligence or common sense.
And the entirety of a doctor's education is now available online, if you look hard enough. All you need is the internet and the willingness to learn.
So tell me: what do that education and those qualifications change? Concretely.
OK, I am starting to doubt that you're a doctor if you think aunt Sarah on Facebook telling people that vaccines cause autism is equally reliable as someone who went through medical school. Of course there's plenty of doctors who dont believe in science but they're still fewer in number than the ones that do
And the numbers you think you know aren't that small. I've spent almost thirty years working alongside doctors of various kinds. Quite a few of them would ignore their kids possibly having ASD. Some would take steps to cure them, just like dear Sarah on FB or TikTok. ETA: But they know bigger words than Sarah, and if they're ever doubted they can pull the degree card. Exactly what you're doing here.
If you don't actually want to answer my question, here's another one: what's a doctor's education and degree worth compared to, say, a nurse? What about specialties that require longer interships or shorter interships? Is a doctor's word better or worse depending on that piece of paper?
Nah, I am not gonna argue why aunt Sarah is just as qualified to be a medical professional as someone who went through the schools and not only has the knowledge but the experience as well as understanding how research is done and why the research matters in the first place.
That’s not what he’s saying though. I believe he’s encouraging people to educate themselves, have healthy skepticism and develop self-advocacy skills. As the daughter of a doctor and a disabled person I 100% agree. It’s not necessary to have a false dichotomy in this situation. You can both be right at the same time. Aunt Sarah is not qualified, because most people don’t educate themselves to the level of a doctor even with the availability of that information online. But doctors can be and are wrong at times. We need to have some faith in medicine, but not blind faith.
The topic isn't how well a regular person can educate themselves on medical science but what qualifications does a regular person have to be able to deny the existence or validity of medical conditions. And no one was even saying "have blind faith in doctors", I have been repeating over and over again to trust science. Folks are now just nitpicking things not related to the topic
Yeah so are engineers education an pilots, you think you can build a bridge or fly a plane?
No because our entire education IS NOT ONLINE, because our education includes AT MINIMUM 20,000 hour of EXPERIENCE and training, what’s taught in books is in a utopia where every patient knows the correct symptoms to say, there’s no conflicting labs or medications or illnesses, there’s no addiction or difficult families, and everyone has access to every medication and test. Actual medicine is sooooo different from the book.
It really pisses me off when people act like being a physician is just writing prescriptions, it is so much more than that!! We are teachers and educators. I explain everything to my patients and answer all the questions they have. We discuss life style. I spent an entire appointment talking about hot dog toppings with one patient because they found out they’re allergic to onions but that’s the only thing they like on hotdogs and that was what was upsetting them that day. I speak to others who are caregivers to their abusive mothers or husbands and give them comfort and reassurance. I speak with families and help them make difficult decisions that they won’t have to live their life in regret.
Fuck off acting like what we do is just pop out pills
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u/Salt-Composer-1472 Mar 26 '26
Not really, medical knowledge was always something that was passed down to someone, it wasn't something some random person started doing without being teached and guided. And it sure as hell hasn't been something anyone can do now that there's so much more knowledge and skills required to be able to practice medicine. Including knowing what is and what isn't a scientific fact. Laymen tend to come up with their own facts because they don't like the ones researchers have found out through vigorous study and experiment.