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Comment by Bukhmanizer | Hacker News Reader

I liked this article but mining social media comment sections to show “impact” like

> “TikTok singlehandedly made me not seek medical care recently,” wrote one user

is pretty cringey. You could probably find comments in favor or against literally any story that you want to tell.

Once you have gone that far, what stops you from writing those comments yourself? It is not like there is any attribution on tiktok.

(edit: "you" in a "them"sense)

What’s funny is I have some journalist friends and they used to tell stories of colleagues who would literally call someone and tell them “please say ‘X’” and then would run a story of “a person on the street says ‘X’.”

And would get emails like “anyone willing to give a background flavor quote on…”

Whenever I see a news story and the random example is some rich New York person I assume they are friends with the producer or whatnot.

So I think journalists have always done this, just now it’s so much easier.

Which uncovers an even bigger problem: people making medical decisions on whatever some "influencer" on Tiktok says. In this case actually the quotes are unwarranted - the influencer DID influence a person. And not in a good way.

Edit: just wait until AI starts giving medical advice and people start listening to it.

And before that, people made medical decisions based on something they saw on Dr. Oz. Down to buying a more expensive supplement because he said it had to be that brand. (I worked in the pharmacy for some years in the 00s and early 10s).

And they'd get medical advice from grandmothers, aunts, parents, and friends. And be convinced they were right even though they weren't.

Alternative "medicine" has been around for many many years. I'm pretty sure there are books about it.

This isn't a new thing, it just uses whatever tech people happen to use (or lack thereof).

>Which uncovers an even bigger problem: people making medical decisions on whatever some "influencer" on Tiktok says.

What if the influencer is... a doctor? I recently saw a TikTok from a self proclaimed doctor with about 500k likes about how Benadryl is not recommended as an antihistamine anymore compared to newer ones like Claritin because it can potentially cause dementia when habitually used for many years.

I don't know if it's true or not, but it's something I'd consider looking into further the next time I need to make a decision like that.

Interesting side note. I tried to actually find this TikTok and searched "benadryl" in TikTok's search and got this message instead of any search results:

>Be informed and aware

>Some substances can be dangerous when used or misused. Learn more about how drugs, alcohol and tobacco can affect your mind, body and behavior: https://www.tiktok.com/safety/substance-support/

But it's also important to acknowledge that doctors also give bad and incorrect medical advice. That's why the concept of "getting a second opinion" exists. I think especially in the United States, there are many maladaptive incentives that encourage this. In the United States, it's still routinely recommended by doctors to circumcise baby boys for supposed health purposes even though no other developed country does this for non religious reasons.

Dentists are notorious about this sort of thing:

- https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-tro...

- https://www.rd.com/article/how-honest-are-dentists/

I think the healthcare situation in the U.S. has given going to see a doctor this rarified air - like I had to fill out so many forms to go through this experience, I got to my appointment right on time and still had to wait 45 minutes, and will have to deal with so much hassle after it's done and probably a surprise bill or at least a phone call with either the doctor's office, or my health insurance company. It's like peasants seeking an audience with the king.

What is even worse about these doctors, is that sometimes they may be doctors, but not medical doctors. I watched a video on YT once and the doctor's explanation for why his advice would work seemed a bit weird to me. Checking his credentials it turns out he's not a medical doctor and known for alternate science and questionable view points. All the YT comments were really positive of course, giving any reader zero value or a chance for a different view.

Karens already give medical advice and people already listen to it and now whooping cough is back. We don't need to wait for AI. Please stop trotting out this bogeyman as if LLMs are currently transformative - they are not.

TBH LLMs probably give better medical advice on average than the median layperson (if deprived of Google).

what is a karen?

Recent slang term for people who are rude and entitled with customer facing, typically retail, employees in order to unfairly get their own way. But you'll often see it extended to anyone complaining about something in a way to silence any criticism by labeling them rude and unreasonable.

Seems a little sexist?

You can't fix stupid.

Plenty of people take medical advice from their neighbors or friends who have no medical background.

Some people are going to make bad choices, you can't avoid it.

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