Reading about the crisis of expertise in health (among other things) in @doctorow's new book, I'm wondering to what extent it feeds on our perceived or actual individualization of health risks. https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1298631104983740417

We ask individuals to be responsible for so many aspects of their health, and for preventing or mitigating risks of potential issues, from diabetes to cancer, regardless of the environmental factors beyond their control.

It isn't just conspiracists of all kinds who push towards questioning or being alert to potential signs that something's wrong. It's also core to preventative medicine and 'responsible patients' discourses.

I don't think it's that easy for individuals to reconcile health decisions that are for the greater public good like vaccines with a highly individualized model of health risks, while knowing that when something goes wrong, public support is insufficient.

And that's before mentioning that our ideal of health is increasingly unattainable - the race towards being more focused, productive, fit etc is endless and builds on individualized (again) comparisons that often leads to the conclusion something must be wrong.