[bagacrap]

honest question: why do we keep looking to physicians for guidance? They are highly trained in case by case treatment but not epidemiology. They are not taught to make population wide predictions about the future, they just diagnose and treat. They have access to some anecdata and that's about it. Professors, epidemiologists, and medical researchers have a lot more training and practice in the arena we care about.

[tim333]

In general they have some idea what they are on about re diseases. Also they tend to be fairly down to earth in that they deal with patients directly rather than abstractions.