The Trouble With Doctor Google

The internet has been an invaluable tool during the times of the pandemic. Marooned in our little socially distanced islands, we have retained contact with the outside world through digital means.

- Santosh Desai

CITY CITY BANG BANG

At an uncertain time, when the world and the experts that we depend upon to keep us alive have all been in learning mode when it comes to this new global threat, the ability to stay up-to-date with all the developments in the world of medicine and healthcare has been extremely useful. The facility of being able to speak to doctors and consult them over video has made a huge difference at a time when personal contact of any kind is best avoided.

Closer to home, at a time when the second wave has highlighted just how ramshackle our healthcare infrastructure is, the only help available to people who have been helplessly hunting for oxygen, vital medicines and hospital beds has come in the form of digitally-powered networks of good Samaritans. Strangers across cities have worked tirelessly in real-time to try and help those in desperate need.

And yet, there is the flip side too. A lot of the information going around is false and worse, motivated. Untested remedies, fanciful conspiracy theories, unscientific advice all abound. Easy and instant access to healthcare information is a boon in so many ways, but equally, it also serves to heighten panic and encourage self-medication and self-diagnosis.