Anti-science

 

I had this written up when the book came out. Now with RFK Jr inserting wacko ideas into healtcare, it is again relevant.

Peter Hotez's book describes how anti-science has become problematic. It can even prevent government funding of research.

Biology is still quite a mystery to the layman. Their approach to it is political and grassroots activism. You can read about politics and Fox News' campaign to oppose science in the name of freedom in other books. However, here the opponents of vaccines are described quite accurately. The factors you do not immediately see are also explained to some extent. Consumers are consumers of misinformation spread by a systematic machine. It is not worth basing your opinion solely on social media.

Who benefits from opposing vaccinations? Hotez mentions at least the trolls hired by Putin on social media. They spread false information about almost everything. Disinformation here and elsewhere, as well as the chaos of the pandemic, were Putin's goals. Local groups then seize on the false information to spread as facts. Scientists with important titles were also hired to come up with false information. The book mentions Jeffrey Singer, who wants to popularize all science. Scientists should no longer be in the role of "gatekeeper", but with the help of the Internet, a person could compile the information themselves and act on it. Even if a substance had been found to be ineffective against Covid, if it does not cause medical harm in a certain dose, a person would be allowed to try any substance on themselves.

There is also a large group of peddlers of fake medicines and “vitamins” circulating on the Internet. Hydroxychloroquine and a couple of others were popular during the corona pandemic. The criteria by which medicines and vaccines are tested and developed are not easy to read with the experience and education of a layperson. It is easy to grasp the simplest explanation. It is easy to exaggerate the risks of vaccines. In the case of Covid, it was not known that the mentioned risks and health problems in the Covid vaccines were the same, but more dangerous if you got Covid itself.

The functioning of the immune system is not understood by the layman. It is only understood that when you get the vaccine, you need to wait a while for the immune system to be ready to fight the virus. But at least that is clear. Those who have been vaccinated are starting to doubt whether the vaccine was of any benefit if you got Covid anyway. The statistics that support vaccines are tables, and they cannot be summarized in some Twitter-style message.

The book lists political groups that work in the healthcare sector. There is also a section on climate change and those who oppose anything related. All the January 6th rebellion groups, the Proud Boys and the like, are involved in sending threatening messages to Peter Hotez. He came into the picture during the pandemic and was even on television much more often than Anthony Fauci.

Anti-vaccine groups were ready since 2015 in Texas and California. When Donald Trump was elected president, opposition to science was in full swing. All government projects during the pandemic had to be modified stop depriving freedom. Public health in the US operates at the state level. State recommendations put in place, and in each state there is a person in public health leading that.

Public health operates at state and county level. Quarantines and tests were ordered. Now this was seen solely as the enemy of the individual and no compromise was made if there was even the slightest risk to the individual. Before the pandemic, there was misinformation about vaccines and autism in children.  Now the opponents had to come up with new claims. After all, the people being vaccinated were mostly adults.

At the local level, school parent councils first intervened in the use of masks because vaccines were not initially available to children. The same group of patents continues to operate and is now acting with the support of Governor DeSantis by restricting anything related to gender and minority groups in school textbooks and teaching.

Hotez explains exactly what happened during the pandemic in a few paragraphs. In the rest of the book, he continues to offer communication as a solution. He himself, although he is mainly a researcher in a large hospital system in Texas, has gone to the media as a defender of science. Hotez suggests a campaign in which prominent figures are hired to communicate with the media. They should be supported by organizations, so that the skeptical would agree to listen to the message for a moment. If the state hires them, they will not be believed.