Lately, when I’ve been going to medical or dental appointments, I am being confronted with a demand to ‘Just check your temperature real quick’ … as if this is not an invasion of my privacy. As if this is a mandate rather than a request to perform a medical intervention on me. Sometimes it is not even a medical professional aiming that device at my face, between my eyes.
Why question this?
Anytime anyone tells you they are going to do something to your physical body rather than asks your permission, all the red flags should start waving. All the alarms should begin to go off in you mind.
They did for me.
Where did informed consent go? It went right out the window the minute you consented to this medical procedure without question, as if it were normal.
This is one of the reasons I am so concerned about the safety of this practice: When I go online and search “Why you shouldn’t allow infrared thermometers to be aimed at your face,” Google offers up page after page of articles about why it isn’t okay for me to be questioning this. [Read that last sentence again].
Every medical intervention has both known and unknown effects on us. Also, medical devices are not always consistent and are not always accurate. Plus, an elevated temperature can mean many things. Body temperature fluctuates with the time of day it’s taken, what the person was doing just prior to measurement, and for women, what time of the month it is or if they are in menopause, to name just a few variables.
Some questions I have about infrared thermometers include: Does infrared light harm eyes? Does infrared light harm skin? Does infrared light affect the pineal gland and if it does, how? Does allowing a gun-shaped device to be pointed at one’s face perhaps set one up to not dodge assault at a future time?
Maybe you have some questions as well.
If I allow my temperature to be taken with an infrared thermometer, I decline to have the device pointed at my face, between my eyes, and I offer my wrist instead. This is what I am doing right now (subject to change as I discover more information about this that I deem trustworthy).
You decide what you feel is best for you.
#questioneverything
Karen Creamer
