3 ms·
Counterexample from recent personal experience: I developed pain in my hand which made it difficult to type. Some googling revealed that my set of symptoms coul
by tetromino_ 6y ago
Counterexample from recent personal experience: I developed pain in my hand which made it difficult to type. Some googling revealed that my set of symptoms could be caused by 3 rather different underlying causes requiring very different treatments. Failing to treat the correct underlying cause could permanently damage my ability to use my hand, and thus my ability to earn a living.
I _needed_ to go to a physician for a preliminary assessment and then needed to get an X-ray, and have the X-ray interpreted by a professional, to know how to proceed.
Unless you somehow have built a medical lab in your basement with instruments and reagents to do bloodwork, take X-rays, etc., doctor visits are occasionally absolutely needed.
- jjk166 6y agoAnd what are the odds you will encounter that situation again in the next 10 years? In the same time period, what are the odds you'll need a prescription for antibiotics for a common disease? No one is saying you should stop seeing doctors entirely, but several things that currently require a doctor's appointment probably shouldn't.
- tetromino_ 6y agoBased on past experience, I expect to encounter a situation requiring expert medical attention every 5 years, and a situation requiring only a common antibiotic prescription every 1-2 years.
- jeltz 6y agoAnecdotally I have required antibiotics once the last 30 or 35 years so I doubt I would need it any time soon and if I need it I do not think I would be able to self diagnose reliably. Maybe I am an extreme outlier but I do not think taking antibiotics is common among my friends and family either, other than a friend who has chronic ear issues. Personally I think antibiotics is one of the cases where having a gatekeeper is the most important since we must fight antibiotics resistance.