Embed Notice

@argv_minus_one @clarkiestar I'm an engineer with #LongCovid. Doctors have surprised me.

Not a 1:1 comparison, as an engineer I need to be able to walk up to a structure or system and figure it how it works and if a problem is safety related or not. I need to know how to build on someone else's work.

Doctors are drilled on a series of pre-determined scripts. XYZ symptoms and test results, ABC diagnosis, perscribe 123 medication or refer elsewhere. The prior science did the thinking and insurance will only back those treatments. Evidence based medicine is rigid and unthinking.

Go off script, something new to science, and a normal doctor can't figure out what to do, or have the time. Insurance won't pay. Life is not TV.

I've got far, far more professional discretion than a doctor does, and my work is critical to public safety. Medicine also accepts a far higher death and injury rate than is allowed engineers.

The reality of what medicine is today surprised me.