They are getting by in their lives. They are not bedridden and lonely, and living in survival mode like you and me. They just simply won't get it.
I think this is exactly it. And even people who are possibly worse in terms of objective sickness (if you can even measure that) are often sick in more visible and empathizable, "socially acceptable" ways, and see less of a gap between their current ability level and where they could be at if they got the right treatment.
In many Lyme disease groups, there are many people who are quite sick, but are married, have kids, etc. Their world is centered around dealing with the stresses of their very real and otherwise integrated lives. Especially many of the women in those groups are like this. Contrast that with a rather different picture, of a young male who never managed to get settled in life, who doesn't have obvious disabilities like a limp or obesity or something like that, but is too irritable/inattentive/volatile to hold down a job, has maybe picked up some addictions, etc. The latter is in many ways more "in need of a miracle", but much more likely to be passed by and overlooked when the larger society is choosing how to allocate resources for finding cures.
People who are sick, but not on the fringes, are in my experience much less likely to endorse radical new treatments that are themselves not socially acceptable. They ARE likely to endorse treatments that come from outside
accepted science, but these are things like chiropractors, "energy healing", applied kinesiology, etc. They seem to feel they have too much to lose by asking other people to give them bodily fluids and possibly risk being branded a weirdo rather than assuming an identity as a stressed out, overburdened sufferer.
Michael once mentioned that overweight and "visibly unhealthy" people seemed less likely to respond to his sign and/or spiel than people who looked fit and healthy. The way I explain that is that the second group of people imagined themselves as their best potential selves and therefore their egos/self-assessments saw more of a "win" in "rocking the boat". Whereas those who are visibly unhealthy see that unhealth as "just part of them", and they feel less resistance in embracing that to some degree.