29 October

Some angered by the suggestion Covid is extremely bad for them say ‘but my doctor says it’s fine’. Doctors are human and subject to the same social dynamics as the rest of us. It will take millions of deaths for the scientific status quo to shift, and a lot longer again for that shift to find its way to general practice. The MSD Manual I shared in my other post this morning is a major clinical resource for practising doctors. You can see many likely haven’t even read it, and most certainly aren’t following it. Millions died of smoking before that disaster was recognised for what it was. The science on smoking was in for at least a decade before anything was actually done about it. But smoking was highly popular, and a central totem of social life of the time. Part of ‘living your best life’ then. Many who lived that best life died horrible, early deaths. I go straight to the current research on Covid, I’m not waiting for it to have to make its way through the bog of social status games to help me.