From This Is Thin Privilege:

In response to your trolls saying that we should trust doctors: Doctors are as fallible as any other human being. They make mistakes, or are lazy. A friend who was recently in the hospital for an ankle surgery caught four separate doctors and nurses failing to wash their hands before touching her or their instruments. She caught her head doctor at it multiple times. Another friend who had a rarely-seen infection caused by close contact with seals was ignored by her doctor, who refused to believe that such a thing existed or that she could have gotten it. Only when the powerful antibiotics he prescribed her failed, did he pay attention to what she said.



They believe wrong information, and perpetuate it. I had a professor (with a doctorate!) teach me information which had been publicly refuted and the study proven to have been falsified 15 years ago. You can go to various four-year graduate institutions and learn blatantly wrong information from people who haven’t bothered to keep up with the literature, or plain don’t care.



Once you get into medical school, it is almost impossible to get kicked out. I have several friends who are medical students, residents, and doctors, and they all unanimously agree that if you don’t do something as egregious as stealing a corpse or flat-out flunking every course, you’ll pass. You’ll become a doctor. There are people who cheat their way through medical school. You know what you call them? Doctor. In addition, medicine is a rapidly shifting field. A friend had a professor tell her that if a paper hadn’t come out within the past month, it could not be referred to as “recent” literature. That’s how quickly our understanding of medicine changes. Here’s the scary part: Publication lags behind research at a rate of about one to two years. The lag between publication and procedure is even longer. That’s why doctors still prescribe antibiotics for viral colds, despite the fact that this procedure is fingered as the leading cause in the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Doctors are not trustworthy just because they have a lot of schooling. Be your own advocate!

Thank you folks for getting it! Never trust someone’s knowledge just because they “have more of it” than you! These people do things like not wash their hands! Clearly every piece of advice they give you is wrong! I mean look at point #2, a professor this author once had once said something wrong. How am I supposed to trust any doctor after reading that!?!?

Medicine is always changing, so remember, when your doctor says you’d be healthier if you biked places, you can tell him to shove it up his medical school cheating ass, because there’s no reason he knows any more about medicine than you! After all, you read a blog, and that’s worth at least 6 years of medical school. This is great advice folks, and I encourage all readers of This is Thin Privilege to begin following it immediately.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. This means you should trust me even more.