The CDC web site is good, but a portion of people will say “That’s the Government” and thus be turned off. I don’t like it, but that’s the way it is, so we need to account for that (while working to change it, of course!).
As for Khan Academy, I didn’t know they had videos on this, and that’s cool! But there’s a large population who doesn’t know about it, and so won’t rank its videos any higher than other videos.
I am curious, does Khan Academy advertise on Fox News? I’m not trying to be flippant, I’m just noting that repetition breeds familiarity, and familiarity breeds trust.
Ideally, your PCP would be able to direct you to specific videos, and vouch for their content. But that might result in a conversation, and conversations take time that they don’t have. If Khan Academy was better-known among all segments of the population, then a quick pointer to one of their videos would be better-received!
When I see an anti-vax website, I immediately dismiss it as just another anti-vax site.
I imagine when an anti-vax person sees a pro-vaccination site, they feel the same way "Just another pro-vax site, and it's not going to address this serious issue that I saw on the anti-vax site."
I'll accept an "appeal to authority", if I saw an anti-vax doc on the CDC's website, I'd definitely read it (critically). But since the "establishment" is so pro-vax, I suspect that the only authority an anti-vaxxer would accept is someone well known to be against vaccinations.
It might be helpful if some of the parents groups that have been steadfast against vaccinations would reverse course when their children get the measles, but sounds like they are just digging in and dismissing the risk of measles.
I don't know the answer, but I do think it is an interesting question.
We have thousands of people watching out for terrorist attacks, when the biggest biological threat is our neighbor.
I've had extraordinary good experience with the treatment in those cases. They perform a personalized risk assessment and thoroughly inform about risks of both the vaccination and the disease.
decide to try and get a "balanced view"
The idea that a doctor should be removed from general health care concerns seems as poisonous as just about any other other part of the modern American dysfunctional health care system.
A doctor isn't on the top of the health care system merely to provide specialized services. They are there to do exactly this, give the broad public a sense of what science, medicine and general health are. Who else can speak as authoritatively? Especially when you crackpot authorities putting out wholly destructive ideas.
There are plenty of researchers and PhDs who are subject matter experts on vaccines who can help educate, but I don’t think it’s possible with 1 on 1 interactions.
Uh, there's no doubt doctors treat people "one on one." A significant part of a doctor's treatment of a person is proscribing a behavior. And human beings being what they are, any wanting to elicit a behavior needs to spend some time educating a person on why they should behave this way.
I'd agree that the standard for how doctors should operate has become something like what you describe - a frenetic technician rather than an educator, counselor and authority along with the technician part. I'd say that's degraded the quality of American health care, along with all the other it's been degraded.