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<p>When this doctor is confused about advice he gave his friend, he asks <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/wj9dze/aita_for_not_being_supportive_to_a_friend_with_a/" target="_blank">Reddit:</a></p><h2>&quot;AITA for not being supportive to a friend with a sick kid?&quot;</h2><blockquote> <p>I am 44f and I am a medical doctor. because of my profession, friends frequently call me for all sorts of medical advice, which is annoying but I do my best to advise them&hellip;I guess it comes with the profession.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>however, being a doctor, I have a very strong pro-vaccine viewpoint. I realize it has gotten unnecessarily political but to me it is simple science and history showing how many deadly diseases were eradicated by vaccination.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>one of my very good friends is antivax. not aggressively but she doesn&rsquo;t vaccinate her kids. we try to avoid the subject when we talk because we are still friends and I long discovered that I can&rsquo;t prove anything to her.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>anyway, last night I was very tired after my shift, put my phone on silent and went to bed. this morning I wake up to 3 missed calls from her between 11pm and 12 am and a text &ldquo;please call me&rdquo;.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I call and she says she was in panic last night because her kids got high fever and she heard there was a polio outbreak and she wanted to ask me if they have polio and what should she do.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I just say &ldquo;you need to vaccinate your kids so this doesn&rsquo;t happen&rdquo;. she says &ldquo;but it is so scary to give them vaccines &ldquo; and I said &ldquo;well getting polio is even scarier&rdquo;. then she says &ldquo;ok but what if they already got it, what do I do?&rdquo; to which I said &ldquo;I have no clue.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I thought it was eradicated because of vaccination, and we didn&rsquo;t have to worry about it anymore. I really don&rsquo;t know much about polio, your best bet is to consult an infectious disease specialist&rdquo;. she sounded upset and hung up.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>now&mdash;what I said was 100% true. I really don&rsquo;t have a lot of knowledge about polio. but I feel like maybe my tone was a bit condescending and maybe I was a bit of an AH talking to a scared mom like that.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>from what she described it sounded like her kids had a simple cold maybe with a little fever but she has a lot of anxiety and googles stuff a lot&hellip;AITA?</p> </blockquote><h2>Let&#39;s find out.</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/5nl007/" target="_blank">nelhit98</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA. You aren&rsquo;t a 24/7 DR to someone who doesn&rsquo;t believe in science. She should call her DR or go to ER. It maybe harass but if you can&rsquo;t believe in science then OP can&rsquo;t help and I&rsquo;m sure OP is tired.</p> </blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Curious_Discussion63/" target="_blank">curiousdiscussion77</a> writes:</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>NTA This woman, not a patient of yours, called you at home in the middle of the night, panicked because she thought her kids had a preventable disease. Hopefully after this she will change her mind. Your response was not inappropriate.</p> </blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/burnafone91/" target="_blank">burningman6</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA - you&#39;re a doctor... Wouldn&#39;t it be unethical to give specific advice about something you&#39;re not familiar with and without examining the patient in question directly?</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Seems like what you did was give a referral to someone who knows more than you... Which is the smart thing to do regardless of whether they&#39;re a friend or a patient.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Maybe you could have out it more tactfully, but you did nothing wrong. Maybe not putting it so tactfully will push her into action.</p> </blockquote><h2>Well, looks like OP is NTA. But could he have handled this situation differently?</h2><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Doctor upsets friend with sick child when he doesn't support her 'unorthodox' beliefs.

When this doctor is confused about advice he gave his friend, he asks Reddit:&quot;AITA for not being supportive to a friend with a sick kid?&quot; I am 44f and I am a medical doctor. because of my profession, friends frequently call me for all sorts of medical advice, which is annoying but I do my best to advise them&hellip;I guess it comes with the profession.  however, being a doctor, I have a very strong pro-vaccine viewpoint. I realize it has gotten unnecessarily political but to me it is simple science and history showing how many deadly diseases were eradicated by vaccination.  one of my very good friends is antivax. not aggressively but she doesn&rsquo;t vaccinate her kids. we try to avoid the subject when we talk because we are still friends and I long discovered that I can&rsquo;t prove anything to her.  anyway, last night I was very tired after my shift, put my phone on silent and went to bed. this morning I wake up to 3 missed calls from her between 11pm and 12 am and a text &ldquo;please call me&rdquo;.  I call and she says she was in panic last night because her kids got high fever and she heard there was a polio outbreak and she wanted to ask me if they have polio and what should she do.  I just say &ldquo;you need to vaccinate your kids so this doesn&rsquo;t happen&rdquo;. she says &ldquo;but it is so scary to give them vaccines &ldquo; and I said &ldquo;well getting polio is even scarier&rdquo;. then she says &ldquo;ok but what if they already got it, what do I do?&rdquo; to which I said &ldquo;I have no clue.  I thought it was eradicated because of vaccination, and we didn&rsquo;t have to worry about it anymore. I really don&rsquo;t know much about polio, your best bet is to consult an infectious disease specialist&rdquo;. she sounded upset and hung up.  now&mdash;what I said was 100% true. I really don&rsquo;t have a lot of knowledge about polio. but I feel like maybe my tone was a bit condescending and maybe I was a bit of an AH talking to a scared mom like that.  from what she described it sounded like her kids had a simple cold maybe with a little fever but she has a lot of anxiety and googles stuff a lot&hellip;AITA? Let&#39;s find out.nelhit98 writes: NTA. You aren&rsquo;t a 24/7 DR to someone who doesn&rsquo;t believe in science. She should call her DR or go to ER. It maybe harass but if you can&rsquo;t believe in science then OP can&rsquo;t help and I&rsquo;m sure OP is tired. curiousdiscussion77 writes: NTA This woman, not a patient of yours, called you at home in the middle of the night, panicked because she thought her kids had a preventable disease. Hopefully after this she will change her mind. Your response was not inappropriate. burningman6 writes: NTA - you&#39;re a doctor... Wouldn&#39;t it be unethical to give specific advice about something you&#39;re not familiar with and without examining the patient in question directly?  Seems like what you did was give a referral to someone who knows more than you... Which is the smart thing to do regardless of whether they&#39;re a friend or a patient.  Maybe you could have out it more tactfully, but you did nothing wrong. Maybe not putting it so tactfully will push her into action. Well, looks like OP is NTA. But could he have handled this situation differently?

When this doctor is confused about advice he gave his friend, he asks Reddit:  &quot;AITA for not being supportive to a friend with a sick kid?&quot;   I am 44f and I am a medical doctor. because of my profession, friends frequently call...