During a perfect misinformation storm many don't trust the truth tellers because they've met them.

[jaxexpat]

It's been amazingly easy for the incredibly backward and illogical misinformation about covid-19 to stick and for non facts to become accepted. If people would only go to their local hospital's ICU's and see the conditions there they'd understand but, wait a minute, they can't go into the ICU or Covid ward, obviously. So that data comes through spokespeople employed at the hospitals. My personal experience with hospitals is that staff will generally reply based on assumptions instead of finding the real answer to my questions, no matter how innocuous or simple. Busy doctors are horrible conduits of confidence when questioned by non-medical people about complicated issues. Hospital managers are ALWAYS considerate of what effects their bottom lines. The public knows that. Thus is the road to distrust often underlain by words from people too distracted to deal with plain facts. They can't share their fear of the horror unfolding before their eyes lest their profits suffer.

I'm sure I'm not the only person to have had poor health care experiences, nor even one of a minority. In America, most people's first encounter with the American Health Care system is through their insurance carrier. Is it then any wonder then that alternative facts have a certain attraction.

[agingdem]

1. Question: did you eventually get better?

did those tired doctors and hospital staff come together "cure what ails you"?...sorry, I don't buy your premise...the unvaccinated are mining so called "medical" information to accommodate their biases..somehow I can't see medical professionals advising their patients against the vaccine because of an injected "government is watching" microchip or low sperm count...

[Hortensis]

2. My experience is that by and large healthcare workers are competent,

honest, and conscientious, certainly typically hard working, not always notably caring, but sometimes very much so.

That comes from my personal experience both as a patient, wife and mother of patients and my years of experience working in the medical feld, which in no way supports your overall negative picture.

Of course I learn what I can find out about practitioners and institutions, about my own condition, listen to what the practitioners tell me, ask questions and listen to the answers, and then follow their instructions and advice. I don't believe it's a coincidence that so far our experience is generally satifactory to very good care.

I also believe that if my attitude going in was one of distrust and dissatisfaction, I would almost inevitably sabotage my own care. Allowing anything to distract from the truth of the situation pretty much guarantees mistakes in judgement.

Btw, now matter their various flaws, nobody trains for medicine out of greed for money, or for status. Investor profit margins are very low compared to other opportunities where much more money is floating around for the scooping up, and professionals usually could make far more money for far less effort in the fields a lot of their college friends headed for.