The trust that medical professionals have long been conferred with is under severe threat from fringe conspiracy theories that have now entered the mainstream, “colossal” lies, and the destruction of public health infrastructure, future doctors have been warned.
Professor Colin Doherty, the head of the school of medicine at Trinity College Dublin and a neurologist in St James’s Hospital, was speaking to students at the college’s Stethoscope Ceremony for third year students.
The annual ceremony marks the students' transition into clinical training.
Prof Doherty told the students that the inherited trust that doctors have long been conferred with is now under severe threat.
“Not through anything you have done or could do,” he said.
“But because of forces at the frontlines of society. We are witnessing the destruction of public health infrastructure across the world, particularly in the West.”
Fringe conspiracies have now entered the mainstream, he added.
“In the United States, it is commonplace to hear claims that vaccines contain microchips for population control, cause autism, or killed hundreds of thousands of young men during covid.
He added: “This is an example of what was, in the 1930s in Germany, what Goebbels called ‘the big lie’, a lie so fantastically false, so easily disproven, that people believe it must be true.
Smaller lies can be fact-checked. But colossal lies, especially when amplified by institutions, are very hard to counteract
These lies are now at the heart of public health debates in the US, eroding trust, he added.
“Medical and scientific expertise is increasingly dismissed. While deportations, the militarisation of cities, and the dismantling of rights are all markers of tyranny, it is the systematic disinformation in public health that is the canary in the coal mine. This is what fascism looks like in our era.”
This degradation of trust is not confined to vaccines or covid, he added. "Other colossal lies are also shaping global health: the denial of famine and genocide in Gaza, the cutting off of humanitarian aid, the collapse of HIV surveillance in Africa, the loss of health insurance for millions of US citizens, and the massive scaling back of medical and scientific research worldwide."
He urged young doctors to seek out joy and grace. "The cultivation of joy has always been a form of resistance. Not joy rooted in shame or hatred, but joy grounded in grace and love.
"Modern medicine saves lives. But recovery is often slow, and its joy unfolds gradually, over time."
