Americans Embrace 12th-Century Health Beliefs as Post-Covid Trust in Medicine Frays
Updated
Updated · CNN · Aug 16
Americans Embrace 12th-Century Health Beliefs as Post-Covid Trust in Medicine Frays
1 articles · Updated · CNN · Aug 16
Summary
Millions of Americans are turning to detoxes, energy healing, astrology-guided care and other medieval-style wellness ideas as confidence in mainstream medicine weakens after Covid-19.
Harvard psychiatrist Roy Perlis said the pandemic exposed science’s trial-and-error process in real time, opening a trust vacuum that Facebook, TikTok, YouTube influencers and AI chatbots have filled with dubious health claims.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump have amplified that shift by spreading misinformation, including attacks on childhood vaccine policy and false claims about vaccine quantities for children.
Historians said the language of toxins, purging and bodily imbalance echoes 1,000-year-old medical thinking, though medieval treatments at least fit the scientific framework people had at the time.
The broader pattern reflects a modern search for simpler answers outside distrusted institutions, even as experts argue real flaws in healthcare have made people more vulnerable to unproven remedies.