I once considered becoming a doctor but decided not to follow that road for multiple reasons. I became a teacher instead and so I don’t dispense medical advice to people other than in generalities. I mostly tell individuals to find a doctor with outstanding credentials who is respected among his or her peers. While a well meaning person sometimes provides me with ideas of how to treat this or that ailment I usually find that asking my primary care physician what measures to take leads to far better outcomes than if I google my symptoms and attempt to self diagnose what is going on with me. 

I worked during the summer for a doctor many moons ago when I was still in high school. I vividly remember the time that he called me into his office and counseled me to call a physician before getting myself upset by any scary pains I might one day feel. Above all he insisted that I never simply rely on the uneducated advice of a neighbor or friend or relative to treat myself. He told me that people quite often assume that they know exactly what a sick person needs to feel better but that deciding on a plan for care is complex and requires lots of critical tests to determine a true diagnosis. 

I remembered his wise words over the years even as I sometimes attempted to resist the impulse to call a doctor thinking that if I just waited a bit things might resolve themselves. Once that led me to walking around with hepatitis risking the health of others that I encountered. It was actually my good neighbor who literally insisted that either I call my doctor or she would do so. I ended up being far sicker than I imagined and it would be three months before my ordeal was finally resolved because I had waited so long. 

I’ve sadly done that in other instances as well like thinking that I might end the pain in my knees with exercises found on the Internet. Not until I was feeling like a cripple did I contact an orthopedic specialist who lessened the paint with shots and then directed me to physical therapy. The results have been so positive that I no longer worry that I will forever doomed to a wheelchair. 

I mention these things not because I do not believe in the advice that doctors give me, but because I sometimes think that my complaints are too minor to bother them. That’s when I listen to the old wive’s tails that generally never work. By the time I get to a doctor’s office I am worse off than I needed to be. 

I suppose that many are like me but I have watched my father-in-law stay unbelievably healthy by following the advice of doctors to the letter. His entire daily routine is determined by the instructions that his many doctors have given him. He never varies, never falters and never allows any change in the way he is feeling to fester until it gets worse. He alerts his doctors immediately and they have literally saved him from death multiple times because of his diligence. At the age of ninety six he is in better shape than many of my younger friends.

I have thought about all of this when I listen to the fantastical medical thinking of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has been tapped to be a leader in assuring the health of the people of the United States. What bothers me is that he only has ideas, no training in medicine or science, no degrees in those areas. He simply has done what he calls a great deal of reading and talking to people with alternative ideas that he believes should radically change the general practices of medicine in our nation. In other words he is little better than the neighbor who thinks she knows better that my doctors or the Internet advice that I use without actually knowing the exact problem with which I am dealing. Those of us who rely on folk remedies are fools.

Kennedy is well known for his debunked theories about vaccines including the erroneous idea that they are causing autism in young children. He does not believe in germ theory but harbors a long deserted idea that good health can be had by anyone who eats properly and exercises regularly, ignoring the reality that sometimes even the healthiest among uus contract diseases that cannot be treated by lifestyle alone. 

One area where Kennedy and I totally disagree involves the treatment of mental illness. He seems to think that the mentally ill should be sent away to farms where their minds will be calmed by doing the manual labor of growing fresh vegetables and fruits. He insists that such programs will heal them more quickly than administering medications. He is unwilling to take into account the fact that many people like my mother are able to lead relatively normal lives with properly supervised medicines. I have seen the miracle of such things with her and I doubt that she would have been able to work full time until she reached retirement age without them. I know for certain that she would have felt betrayed if we had sent her away to a farm. 

Kennedy is not willing to admit that many people died of Covid because they chose not to accept the vaccines that became available. He does not seem to understand that no doctor ever said that the vaccines would prevent Covid but that they would better protect the individual if they came down with the virus. As it happened there were some people who did not make it in spite of being vaccinated but that sort of thing happens with many different types of treatments for everything from cancer to heart disease. There will always be humans who do not react the same as the majority when it comes to medications or treatments. Sometimes people die in spite of the efforts of the doctors who treat them. My brother for example has a compromised immune system and tests showed that the vaccines did not create immunity in him the way they did for me.

We have some of the finest doctors and scientists in the world in this country. One of them should be in charge of the nation’s health, not a hack who peddles misinformation. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a danger to us all and Congress should impeach him and refuse to vote for anyone to replace him who peddles dangerous theories. We can and should do better than that for the sake of us all but most especially for our children.