MEDICAL SCIENCE vs “I’VE GOT A HUNCH”

Medical science is not the same as a horse race; you can have a hunch about Big Red in the fifth, but a hunch about medical science?

I don’t remember the last time I heard about a medical hunch, if I ever have. But if this hidden memory pops up, I hope the medical hunch came from a medical person.

As a former Army medic, I don’t traffic in hunches. As a parent, I did my best to keep my kids alive and thriving. It’s what we do.

We all feel bad for the kids who die because their parents didn’t vaccinate them. We feel bad when an unvaccinated kid gets our kids sick.

The anti-vaxxer hunch goes against medical science.

With the coronavirus, the American health system has to work twice as hard when Mr. Trump shares his medical science hunches.

Medical Science From Vanity Fair:

MSNBC host Chris Hayes expressed alarm on Twitter: “Not a doctor or a virologist or anything but DEFINITELY DO NOT GO TO WORK IF YOU HAVE CORONAVIRUS PLEASE AND THANK YOU.” And experts, like CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, were dumbfounded by the president’s take, delivered on live television to millions of viewers who, if they were to heed advice from Dr. Trump, could potentially exacerbate the spread of the disease. “Even without a coronavirus outbreak, people who are sick, who are showing any symptoms like that, shouldn’t be going to work,” Gupta emphasized. “That’s how something like this spreads.”

I’ve written a book about a virus I got too up-close and personal with. It’s a work-in-progress that features HPV cancer and my neck. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus common in the sexually active community. HPV 16 is a cancer causing virus.

I saw doctors, more doctors than I’ve ever seen, and they didn’t all agree on how to kill the cancer trying to take me out.

Early on, I learned about some people who tried to cure the same cancer without the nightmare of chemo and radiation. They had a medical science hunch on how to do it more holistically.

Over time they realized they needed the big guns in the radiation room and the infusion clinic, but their health had already suffered so much that the treatment would cause more harm than good.

No doctor I met tried to convince me that the killer cancer was a minor inconvenience, but one opinion did recommend more chemo than a second opinion.

From World Health Organization:

Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

I was diagnosed in November, 2016, just as Mr. Trump won the presidential election. I started treatment the day, or day after, his inauguration. Did the change from Obama to Trump affect my health? Probably not.

Did the change of presidents affect my mental health? Yes, it did, to the point of listening to a fellow cancer patient berate a volunteer driver when they didn’t agree Mr. Trump was a ‘real man’ and how the White House needed a ‘real man.’

The woman finally heard enough and left me alone in the room with the Trump-man. I watched him pat himself on the back for the work he’d just done, watched him sit up straighter for speaking his truth in a nasty way.

I didn’t think Mr. Trump had anything to do with cancer treatment, but he had everything to do with the bad-mouthed man I shared the room with. He spoke his truth, would I speak mine? How was I supposed to intervene on behalf of a verbally abused woman who left the room?

I sat a moment thinking about why I was in the room in the first place. Cancer treatment was the answer, not to hear over-heated, regurgitated, Fox News opinion. The man seemed proud of himself, and would continue, unless something helped him see another side.

Would getting into it hinder cancer treatment? Damage my fragile mental state? Could I even mount a decent argument?

I decided I needed to try, that I needed to be the something that would help him curb his mouth.

“Excuse me, sir . . .” I said, and continued.

Washington County:

“This emergency declaration does not indicate that the public is at any greater risk. The declaration is meant to give our county public health staff the flexibility and support it needs to quickly purchase supplies, organize our response over the weeks ahead and seek potential state and federal resources as they become available.”

When your health is in jeopardy, find the best advice available and follow it. Avoid medical science hunches from crackpots ranging from TV doctors, TV gameshow hosts, and a president acting like both of them.

The final sobering chart: