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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 24, 2024

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There shouldn't be a strategy. Just make sure that doctors are liable when their willingness to go along with a patient's wishes crosses the line into malpractice, but other than that, it's worth the tradeoffs. The Covid response should have made that clear, especially around alternative treatment protocols (HCQ, ivermectin). Even if these were clearly not killing anyone (when prescribed and not taken by idiots who can't figure out dosage), and could conceivably have benefits, western government went above and beyond to stop people from taking them, or discredit doctors who prescribed them, not because of medical harm but because they needed to assert narrative control and that narrative was "No reasonable doctor believes in those treatments, don't even argue about it, shut up, stay at home and follow orders". If I recall they also in some places pressured pharmacists to not fulfill prescriptions for them. Governments will use and abuse any ability to insert themselves in the relationship between doctors and patients to the fullest, even if for political purposes and not medical purposes.