Despite a shortage of medical care in rural America, some residents insult and undermine their doctors

Dr. Banu Symington is an board-
certified oncologist. 

Dr. Banu Symington treats patients in Rock Springs, Wyo., a town of about 24,500 people, where she was treated with kindness and respect until Covid masking battles and conspiracy theories began to enter her conversations with patients.

Symington's experience is mirrored by many other doctors "who say political attacks on science and medicine are affecting their relationships with patients, particularly in rural communities, where physician recruitment already poses a chronic challenge," reports Yuki Noguchi of NPR.

Some of Symington's cancer patients have sworn at her for "suggesting they vaccinate or wear masks to protect their weakened immune systems while undergoing chemotherapy," Noguchi adds. Symington told Noguchi, "It's very difficult, helping someone who scorns your help, or diminishes the value of it."

Some residents have consumed enough conspiracy theories that they believe physicians are trying to poison them for profit or that medical providers are somehow profiting alongside pharmaceutical companies at the expense of patients. 

Dr. Jennifer Bacani McKenney 
practices in her hometown. 

Dr. Jennifer Bacani McKenney practices family medicine in the tiny town of Fredonia, Kansas, where she was born and raised. McKenney's parents had emigrated from the Philippines to Fredonia, where her father started working as a surgeon. For years, McKenney enjoyed community trust as a "home-grown" physician, but "the spread of Covid-19 also revealed how some of her patients perceive outsiders," Noguchi writes.

McKenney told Noguchi, "My patients were calling Covid the China flu and Kung flu — that kind of thing — and saying about 'Asians needing to go back,' and they would say it to my face."

McKenney has continued her work in Fredonia, but acknowledges that today's political climate has made treating patients more challenging. She still recommends treatments, such as vaccines, that some patients push against. She told Noguchi, "But if I don't have those conversations, I'm not doing my job."