Historically, doctors used a bunch of scientifically invalid treatments. This was at the same time as the purge of proletariat medics and women healers (witch trials). With no alternative, we were at the mercy of whatever Doctors wanted to do.
Storytime: Ignaz Semmelweis was a doctor who discovered that washing hands saved lives. The medical authorities didnt appreciate it. Semmelweis was denounced, fired, kidnapped, tortured in a mental asylum, and beaten to death! This was 1865.
And if you wanna say it has changed, let me direct your attention to the fact that doctors are bribed to prescribe oxycodone. (source https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/opioids-doctors-prescriptions-payments/) which may have contributed to the opioid crisis.
So don’t trust somebody just because they have a lab coat and parents who paid their way through med school.
I’d rephrase this… trust scientific medicine, but don’t necessarily trust all doctors. Doctors are human and don’t know everything. But, usually the answer exists or can be found through scientific medicine.
I recently was diagnosed with a somewhat rare disease and it took me a long time to get to a doctor that knew what they were talking about. Until I found them, I’d wait for months to see a specialist and then realize I had learned a lot more than they knew about my particular condition just from reading patient forums and medical papers while I waited.
lol um…
https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2025/eemcs/scientific-study-exposes-publication-fraud-involving-widespread-use-of-ai
Okay, I think we knew that part. The fact that people know it and use AI to abuse the shitty publications shouldn’t be a surprise. This article basically says “if you see an article without citations, it’s likely AI”. Cool.
For the record, real science includes citations. I work in a field roughly tangential to this and you’d be shocked at the man hours that go into citations. Only crap articles would skip that.