Don’t Trust Science?
At Facebook they analyzed everyone’s status updates and arrived at the conclusion that there is one day all year when Facebookers are happiest. Christmas.
Data crunchers in other labs have revealed that if you live in Vermont you will live longer than if you live in New York.
Science interprets stuff like that and makes it really useful. (“Honey, call the movers – we’re going to Burlington on Christmas.”)
Okay, so what if a doctor told you that getting a vaccination against swine flu would be good? Would you get the shot?
Guess what — according to a University of Michigan poll, 60 percent of parents surveyed said they do not plan to vaccinate their children against H1N1. Many were worried about the vaccine’s side effects. People believe that getting the shot might make you more likely to get sick. Bill Maher told his 60,000 Twitter followers, “If u get a swine flu shot ur an idiot.” Even the popular Dr. Mercola is against the shots.
The news is bad for flu vaccinations and it’s even worse for others. Some parents, including Jenny McCarthy, believe that having your children vaccinated against measles might make it more likely that they’ll be diagnosed with autism. Fewer people, therefore, will take the good advice of their doctors and get a vaccination that might help their children and society at large.
People don’t trust science like they used to. A Pew Research Center poll says that only 27 percent of Americans think our greatest achievements are in science – down from 47 percent a decade ago. One explanation is that the days of Big Science – landing on the Moon, inventing the transistor – seem far away. Science is routine now. We expect our smart phones to do the laundry and make photocopies.
Even the innocuous Bill Nye the Science Guy is making people mad. A story appeared on Rainn Wilson’s website about the time Nye was giving a science talk in Waco, Texas:
He cited Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” Nye stated that the lesser light in the aforementioned quote was not technically a light, but a reflector, as in it reflects the sun’s light. The God-fearing folks of Waco were furious. One woman shouted, “We believe in God,” and proceeded to usher out her three children.
Just because your doctor says get a flu shot doesn’t mean you have to get one. (I’m not getting one.) Just because NASA says we should go to Mars doesn’t make it a good idea. (There are a few old bosses I’d like to send to Mars, believe me, but I’d rather we spend the money on solar power and electric cars.) It’s good to question science and medicine.
In the void brought about by all that questioning, however, sometimes you get ignorance. Not good. My fear of getting a flu shot comes mostly from ignorance – I admit it, and by not trusting science we could be creating an epidemic of ignorance worse than the flu.
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Great article, Lee. It’s sad that in this day, the idea of critical thinking, let alone the process of it, is completely foreign to many people. Perhaps science has brought this on itself? After all, it was the invention of the transistor that has led to computers, a primary source of much of our information overload problem. I suppose my only quibble with this post is semantic. Can you really question science when science is a process of questioning?
I’ll take science every time. These nay-sayers are idiots, IMHO. Tomorrow we are blasting the moon to see if there is water or green cheese up there. My vote is for water. Nobody ever walked on water either but that’s another argument.
I think the issue with many people is whether they can trust science. The questioning function of science makes things “worse” in a way, because healthy doubt, mixed with data, mixed with constant revision can all be very scary. When science revises and updates itself — as it should — people don’t know what to believe.
People don’t trust government, teachers, scientists, doctors, people who look different…it’s an old story based mostly on fear. Most want to believe in something that’s certain, but the more we learn through science, the more we discover that we don’t know. It takes courage to deal with uncertainty and still act based on what we think we know. Learning is accomplished by making mistakes and discovering what works. It takes a sense of humor and humility – two things that have always been scarce in this world.
Hi Lee,
I trust science. It’s doctors I don’t trust! Pills, pills, and more pills. Pills to counteract the side effects caused by the previous pills. I’ve seen it in my own life, in which at times I’ve felt like a lab rat on a treadmill. It never ends. Do they ever really get to the cause of a problem, or merely treat its symptoms?
Bob
I think the trouble is people don’t trust the pharmaceutical companies. They feel it’s all about the money. They’d perhaps put the flu shot on the market even if it’s not safe or effective at the expense of those receiving the shot. That’s why I’m not planning to get the shot. There is no integrity in business anymore and trust is gone.
Karen, you are so right about this. The drug companies have gone from “miracle” makers to money makers and in the process have broken the public’s trust. Thanks for commenting.
Seems that a lot of Western medicine is aimed at symptoms and Eastern medicine is aimed at causes. I wonder why that is?
Framing this as a conflict between courage and fear makes things clear for me. Science has the courage to make mistakes and constantly question while religion likes to traffic in the sure thing (“If you do such-and-so, you are going to hell.”) But if you’re going to explore, you need humor and humility. I’d say we need more funny, humble scientists. Thanks for commenting.
I had an “agree to disagree” discussion with my long-time friend yesterday. She and her family were H1N1 vaccinated (her, husband, two teens). She was very upset that my family will not get the vaccine. She was especially bothered because I have an 18-mo old and “don’t you know that children under 6 are the most susceptible and dying.”
Yes, I know the partial reality hype. I’ve seen the same “Swine Flu” graphic over the shoulder of Brian Williams EVERY SINGLE NIGHT for the past several months.
I tend to trust science. What I cannot trust, based on track record, is government, manipulation of the media and bottom lines.
I was actually in rural Thailand among birds and pigs during the Avian Flu panic. I was actually mask-free in China during the SARS scare. I never so much as got a runny nose.
I am not oblivious to the potential, but I am impervious to the hype. My decisions about vaccinations – those for babies, flu and now H1N1 – are based on in-depth research and benefits versus risks information from reputable sources (which does not include the nightly news).
Without even touching on childhood vaccinations, here is why my family and I are not getting H1N1:
1) According to the British Medical Journal, a study of 8500 healthcare workers in Hong Kong, taken at the height of their H1N1 panic last May, revealed half of them would refuse the swine flu vaccine fearing side effects and doubting its effectiveness. Here in the U.S., fewer than 50 percent of health workers get vaccinated against the regular flu.
2) The rush and inadequately tested nature of the vaccine’s production. It’s been a mere seven months since the first cases of swine flu appeared in the United States and 77 million vaccines have already been distributed. Just two months ago, clinical trials involved only 500 adults for a two week period. This would imply that the vaccine and dosages are essentially still being tested – on all of us.
3) A vaccine used to treat swine flu in 1976 was associated with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disorder that leads to nerve inflammation causing muscle weakness. At that time, one person died from the actual swine flu – 25 died from the vaccine, and several hundred developed crippling GBS. The vaccine was withdrawn after ten weeks and the U.S. government was forced to pay millions to those affected. CDC claims that since then, influenza vaccines have not been clearly linked to GBS.
4) Now the CDC is fervently recommending the most “at risk population” – 159 million people – get H1N1 vaccines as soon as they can. This coming from the same organization that championed the disastrous 1998 rotavirus vaccine, hailed as a way to fight childhood diarrhea. It was approved by CDC and FDA despite tests showing children were more immune to rotavirus without the vaccination. It was also known to cause intussusception, a condition causing one section of a child’s intestine to enfold within another, resulting in vomiting, bloody stools, abdominal pain and possible surgery. Less than a year following its release, the vaccine was pulled after intussusception occurred in 102 infants, causing two deaths.
The CDC states the anticipated safety profile of the licensed 2009 H1N1 vaccines will be similar to seasonal influenza vaccines with serious adverse events being “uncommon”. They further report side effects following immunization may be “coincidental or just casually related to the vaccine” – a rather convenient assumption.
Most important to consider is the symptoms of swine flu mirror classic flu – fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills, muscle aches, diarrhea and vomiting. While “feeling like you just got hit by a bus”, a quote from Swine Flu sufferers, does not sound like fun, my family and I have healthy immune systems that may actually work just fine on their own.
Ignorance is bred from fear, yes. And in this case, the fear-inducing hype of dying from swine flu and the researched-fear of getting the vaccine are contented partners at the dance.
Thanks for commenting, Shannon. You combine great passion with a sense of detail. This might make an interesting film someday.
Wired Magazine weighs in on the issue:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/