Dammit!

[Oh_hunnihunni]

How many people know enough about medicine, or even their own health, to know when something is an anomaly? I would guess that no action is taken on any self report, until professionals have evaluated it. How often does that happen?

Got to filter out all those pesky hypochondriacs eh? What about the patient who has CFS/ME, ongoing gut disbiosis causing food intolerances, lymphatic discomfort, recurring low level infections, all of which a 15 minute, pay at the counter GP visit will likely dismiss as psychosomatic or "come back if it gets worse".

Recent health issues have taught me not to put blind faith in health professionals. They are all too inclined to diagnose based on blood tests, pharmaceutical solutions and cherry picking the information they can glean from you while both you and them are painfully aware of the meter running.

Jesse Mulligan (on Radio NZ) recently recounted his reluctant doctor's visit for a collection of vague symptoms. Diagnosis: Shingles (subsequent to a COVID vaccination). Doctor's action: won't be related to the vaccination so won't report it. That attitude from our health professionals is all too common and good reason to override their actions if you see fit.

---

Any survey that relies on voluntary contributions has a very unstable basis that simply cannot be relied upon.

It is one of the inherent weaknesses in democracy.

Doctors can't necessarily be relied on either so where does that put us?

And that weakness in democracy is what stops us being in a dictatorship.

Does it actually stop us ending up in a dictatorship, or is our dictatorship just a more benign one than most?