In a wide-ranging essay on conspiracy theories, Kurt Eichenwald notes that many Americans are skeptical of the medical profession:
Research conducted by professors Oliver and Wood and published in March by The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that 49 percent of respondents believed in at least one medical conspiracy theory, while 18 percent believed in three or more. The theories best known to the respondents involved cancer treatments, vaccines and cell phones; these were also the ones that saw the greatest numbers of people subscribing to them. Thirty-seven percent believed the Food and Drug Administration was conspiring with pharmaceutical companies to suppress natural cures for cancer, while 20 percent thought that corporations were preventing the government from releasing data showing that cell phones cause cancer or that doctors secretly believe vaccines are dangerous but still want to use them on children.
As with political conspiracy theories, fears about medical plots have real-world consequences. People who more strongly believed in conspiracy theories were significantly less likely to use sunscreen or have an annual medical checkup. Those results held true even after the researchers controlled for socioeconomic status, paranoia and the general social estrangement of the respondents.
The Dish 