Is it acceptable to give medical advice (or medical instructions) in an answer?

Question

In the Meta discussion titled: What is a medical advice?, I found that Carey Gregory defined "medical advice" as a type of question:

"Medical advice is any question that asks for a personal advice, diagnosis, prognosis, second opinion, or interpretation of lab results/medical notes/etc. Or more broadly, any question that would require a health professional to know personal details about you (or someone else) to give a proper answer"

In that same discussion, Chris Rogers said (emphasis his):

"I agree with @CareyGregory and we both use the standard explanation that for a number of reasons outlined in this meta post, we can not, and will not, give medical advice."

All Meta discussions I've found regarding medical advice seem to be centered around questions, for example:

• What constitutes a request for medical advice?
• Are personal medical advice questions on topic here?
• Should we edit Personal Medical Advice questions?
• and almost every result here is about questions whereas this search gives about 1/10th the number of results, and none of them seem to answer the question I have right now.

I saw someone give this advice in an answer:

"Anyway, go get one shot. It will give you some protection. Then, after the spacing recommended where you live - probably 3 to 8 weeks - get a second. Then don't worry about the third for 6 months after that."

Whether or not the advice is good, it seems like a slippery slope and bad precedent if the site does not want answerers telling people (or even suggesting to people) what to do!

Answer 1

I don't think we should accept individualized medical advice in answers. Qualified physicians and other medical professionals are unlikely to provide such advice because it would be against the ethical codes of their profession.

I think very generic suggestions to, for example, see a physician are fine. Most questions where that advice applies should be closed, anyways, but if an answerer wants to hedge in favor of making sure a reader considers that option I don't see the harm.

I think regurgitations of guidelines issued by public health authorities are not really medical advice, though (and certainly not individualized), and that's how I'd interpret the specific example identified in this meta question. I'm sure I've included such advice in some of my own answers, though I'd likely write it as a direct referenced quote from a public health org/official. I don't think we need to get strict on policy about that, though.

Answer 2

As you noted in your question, the definition of medical advice that we use here is this:

Medical advice is any question that asks for a personal advice, diagnosis, prognosis, second opinion, or interpretation of lab results/medical notes/etc. Or more broadly, any question that would require a health professional to know personal details about you (or someone else) to give a proper answer

The example you cite is not medical advice as defined by this site. It was not personalized, it was not a diagnosis, prognosis, second opinion, or interpretation of results. Nor is it advice that would require a healthcare professional to know personal details about you. All it requires is having visited cdc.gov or its equivalent in virtually any country on earth.

Repeating the advice of public health authorities in particular is not giving medical advice. By that reasoning, telling people they shouldn't smoke would be considered medical advice, which would be a ridiculously pedantic policy.

What probably isn't apparent to most users is that we do delete answers and comments for providing medical advice. I'd say I average about one per week.

And just so you know, we also delete answers and comments that contain unfounded claims, such as your comment regarding injuries and deaths attributed to the COVID vaccines. If you're going to make claims like that, you need to come prepared to defend them with data from credible sources.

Answer 3

by the code of medical ethics, individual medical advice on public platforms is prohibited. individual medical information is normally confidential. advice on health problems, without a careful assessment of the patient, an anamnesis is a physical examination, can result in advice that can cause damage to health, since medicine is not an exact science..and must be individualized..