The Tragedy of the Bullet Dodged

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Some residents of the southeast who have experienced 2 consecutive hurricanes are waking this morning with a sense of hopelessness as they survey damage around their homes and businesses. That tragedy is obvious. There are however some who were fortunate that the storms spared their homes and businesses and will survey their properties and conclude there was too much made of a storm that was nothing more than a typical evening thunderstorm. That mindset seeds distrust in local officials and professional meteorologists pertaining to accuracy of prognostication of future storms and as a result of this, they can become complacent to future warnings. And are calling 911 to rescue them at 3 AM when no one is available to come. Certainly the lesson is then learned if they survive. If you don’t trust the professionals with training and experience and supplant your familiar experience with luck and “dodging a bullet” is a dangerous thing. The misinformation can be deadly. And there are far too many in public life working for various municipalities or state and federal governments who would use such storms to somehow damage their perceived rivals.

We see this behavior in medicine as well.

• Pandemic: We see people all around us dying yet we survived. Should you conclude that you’re bullet proof and those viruses somehow don’t effect you? You should know that none of us are that special. You cannot and should not let your guard down. Some physicians have even promulgated misinformation about vaccines. Those physicians should choose another occupation and in some states have lost medical licenses and/or professional board certification.
• There are thousands of people who die from flu every year. And because some have never caught the flu, feel that a flu shot is worthless and refuses to get one. You should know that as we age, our immunity diminishes and risk of all sorts of diseases, infectious disease and cancers increase. You’ve dodged a bullet for years, your luck may run out and I pray that you don’t become a fatality statistic.
• For the smoker who has a persistent cough and the chest xray or CT scan is negative for cancer. He/she concludes that all that hype about cigarettes and lung cancer is medical misinformation and they continue to smoke. No one is that special and the health risks of cigarettes reaches far beyond lung cancer.

The list is long but the point is this. If we choose to ignore advice and recommendations regarding health risk and you choose to supplant your dodged bullet experience and ignore the science, who will you call when your luck runs out. This is a serious trend and I strongly advise against rolling the dice. The odds favor the science. Gambling belongs in a casino, not your doctor’s office.