Red, White, and Code Blue

There have been plenty of articles and books noting the consistency with which some people vote against their own economic interest. But today, there’s another even more invasive phenomenon: People are voting, and acting, against their own personal health and well being. Conspiracy theories, quack health leaders, and craven politicians doling out medical advice they’d never follow themselves have created a new era of self-harm in America. That’s bad for patients. And it’s increasingly bad for doctors. “When Dr. Banu Symington first moved to Rock Springs, Wyo., 30 years ago, she appreciated its empty desert landscapes and small-town respect for physicians like herself. Fast-forward to today. Some of Symington’s cancer patients curse at her for suggesting they vaccinate or wear masks to protect their weakened immune systems while undergoing chemotherapy. ‘I actually had a patient’s husband say, ‘You only want me to mask because you’re a liberal bitch.'” NPR: In rural America, scarce doctors battle misinformation as they practice medicine. And the prognosis isn’t good. There’s already a doctor shortage in many rural areas, it’s getting harder (if not impossible) to recruit doctors to areas where the pay is low and the patients are difficult, and “for many decades, the U.S. has relied heavily on foreign-born doctors; half the country’s oncology workforce, for example, comes from overseas. Now, in large part because of the Trump administration’s cuts to science, medicine and research funding, as well as new immigration policies, fewer physicians can — or want to — come to the U.S.” Millions of Americans are cutting off their noses to spite their face (and then refusing to get their noses re-attached because they’d rather do their own research than trust their otolaryngologist).

+ NYT (Gift Article): Most Americans Who Rely on Obamacare Live in Republican Areas. A political movement is asking voters, “Your money or your life?” And its followers are answering, “Actually, why don’t you just take both?”