Make America Trust Science Again
Anyone who knows me well, or perhaps just by my internet persona, knows that I’m logical to a fault. I’m exceedingly rational, driven by facts, and not prone to lines of thinking that rely on belief. I will readily call out anyone who takes zodiac signs or Mercury in retrograde seriously. (Come on guys, there is no plausible mechanism by which planets or stars can impact human affairs — and I’ve already ranted about this at length.) I also have never found much use for religion since it relies on the concept of faith over proof. I have been known to take issue with other forms of dogma that aren’t obvious such as devotion to organic food when the evidence does not point to it being safer or healthier.
I strive to only accept information that has been proven by the scientific method. Maybe this doesn’t make me very fun at parties; but I do think there is enormous value to basing our personal decisions in areas such as a health, medicine, and even food shopping on the best possible information — not just what we want to be true. And it’s even more essential that our elected officials do the same when making decisions and shaping policy.
Measuring Politics
When it comes to politics it can be much easier to get swept up in emotion and ideology. I assuredly have been guilty of this. There are more open-ended philosophical questions we are all constantly asking ourselves when we think about politics and candidates, even if we don’t realize it. It can be hard to quantify and measure differences in how we envision government working for the public and how we want our candidates to perform.
But just because we can have vastly different views on how government should operate and the role it should play in our lives, it doesn’t negate the need for elected leaders to rely on facts, especially when effective policy and actions often rely on it. There are numerous examples in which data-driven policy has been successful.
Mandatory vaccine laws have proven effective at raising immunization levels (essential to achieving herd immunity), whereas personal belief exemptions have allowed for outbreaks in communities with higher amounts of unvaccinated children. When we allow the overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are safe and effective to guide us, regardless of whatever nonsense anti-vaxers cook up, we can keep our country safer.
Needle exchanges provide another important example of how science-backed policy can be integral to improving the health of our citizens. As this CDC report describes, the New York City needle exchange program not only prevented illness and death, but also lowered healthcare costs. Unfortunately, we also have witnessed the negative consequences of failing to operate on the best science when Mike Pence, then Indiana governor, resisted CDC recommendations to set up needle exchanges and increase HIV testing. He finally caved after several years, unfortunately too late to stem the outbreak in hotspots.
Step One: Accept the Science
In order for our leaders to drive effective policy particularly in science-based arenas such as climate change, agriculture, medicine, technology, and of course the COVID-19 and other pandemics, they need to first understand and accept the facts presented by science and experts. This seems obvious to me as someone who has always had a healthy respect for the way in which the scientific process hypothesizes, tests, replicates results, peer reviews, and adjusts with new information to determine scientific truth about our natural world.
I never thought this was so controversial. I know there have always been and always will be pockets of science-denialism and anti-intellectualism in our country. This is why I am so motivated to write well-informed pieces and debunk pseudoscience. I am well aware of the real ways in which misinformation can impact people’s lives, from forgoing proven treatments for ineffective alternative medicine to losing children to vaccine preventable childhood diseases.
“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” Our president ladies and gentlemen. But not much longer if we vote.
However, I have never realized how loud, proud, and mainstream misinformation can really be until Trump decided that he was bored with being a shitty businessman — and 62,979,879 million people decided to vote for him. Trump’s presidency has been a nonstop assault on the most important things to me: science, reason, knowledge, and facts. I never expected better from him, even in his campaign days he peddled conspiracy theories and showed no aversion to lying when it suited him. 20,000 plus lies later he continues to prove that truth and fact are mere inconveniences to his political agenda.
It’s not surprising his relationship with science is just as tenuous as his relationship with the truth. Let’s not forget he suggested windmills cause cancer, that we can nuke a hurricane, or that he still refuses to accept the well-documented evidence that humans are causing climate change, and has told us even recently that COVID-19 isn’t worse than the flu despite all numbers pointing to the contrary. While it’s easy to laugh about Trump genuinely asking if we can inject disinfectants to kill the coronavirus (and believe me I did plenty of that) it’s scary to think that a man this scientifically ignorant is in charge of leading our nation.
Emboldened Ignorance
You can see the consequences of this being played out in real time across our country as we still struggle to even convince the public that the virus is serious despite the over 200,000 death and millions who have battled with it. Across the internet I regularly witness people sharing false information about miracle cures or accusing doctors and medical examiners of falsifying data without any any proof. I can’t count how many people I’ve seen outright make up their own death rate numbers, either completely pulled out of their ass or with the help of some really bad math. In the age of Trump apparently you can just say anything you want loud enough or in all caps — no matter how completely detached from reality or lacking in evidence — and people will nod and share it.
It’s an emboldened ignorance of which Trump is the ringleader and it needs to be put down. Early into the COVID-19 crisis as I witnessed the disastrous federal response under Trump, as I watched people protesting business closures and screaming about their rights being infringed on, I couldn’t help but research what other countries were doing. Many other developed nations were sharing success stories, while in the U.S. we seemed especially determined to fight for our ignorance and the right to infect others.
The story of Germany (another large western democracy) and it’s success in handling the pandemic stands in stark contrast to the United States. As CNBC’s Christina Farr reported the country still had pockets of those protesting restrictions, but allowed scientists to take center stage and communicate “openly and regularly” with the public, which helped to “drown out rumors and misinformation.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her approach to science generally and COVID-19 specifically could not be more different than Trump — and the proof is in the pudding. Their death rates have been lower than many neighboring European countries, and certainly the United States. As Farr notes, Merkel utilized her background to provide “data-driven updates to the public and deferred wherever possible to those with more expertise than herself.”
Putting Science Back in Charge
As long as we have a president who sidelines these experts, and a population increasingly convinced their ill-informed opinion is as valid as that of experts who have dedicated years to fields like virology, epidemiology, and medicine, we will never be able to effectively combat the virus. Too much of the public won’t take the necessary measures such as social distancing and mask wearing seriously. The saying that “you’re entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts” seems especially apt these days.
We have a president in the White House who not only refuses to listen to experts but actively downplays the virus. He regularly spreads misinformation about everything from its severity to the death toll relative to the flu, as well as promoting unproven and potentially harmful cures. In fact this Cornell University study found Trump was the single largest driver of misinformation about COVID-19. When you comb the internet it’s evident he’s not the only one spewing dangerous misinformation about COVID-19; but he is the loudest. And when he refuses the wear a mask or follow expert recommendations on safety guidelines in his own life or at the White House, the country is watching and listening — and it’s sending a dangerous signal.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this isn’t about politics. It’s not about red or blue. This is about electing a president and other leaders who value science and evidence. It’s about electing a president who doesn’t believe he knows everything, and that is willing to listen to experts and rely on their advice — especially when it comes to science policy.
COVID-19 is testing the whole world with a challenge the likes of which we haven’t faced in one hundred years. Even countries who are following the best science and putting experts at the forefront of their strategy are still battling everyday to contain the virus. But the fact the U.S., one of the richest countries and with a great depth of resources, has among the highest death tolls per capita is tragic, and a testament to the fact we won’t get through the crisis without paying an even heavier cost as long as Trump continues to occupy the Oval Office.
In a recent speech Biden said, “let’s end the politics and follow the science. Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It’s a scientific recommendation. Social distancing isn’t a political statement. It’s a scientific recommendation. Testing, tracing, the development and all the approval and distribution of the vaccine isn’t a political statement. It is a science based decision…we can do so much better.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Lkyp73dNk
“Listen to the scientists. Support masks.” -Biden
I could have cried. It shouldn’t be such a big deal to hear a politician come out in support of science, it should just be a matter of course. But there are just too many pressing issues right now, from the pandemic to climate change, to accept anything less.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently came out with a statement criticizing the poor handling of the crisis by our nation’s leaders, breaking nearly two centuries of staying neutral in politics to issue a dire warning. Similarly, Scientific American came out in support of Biden, their first time backing a presidential candidate in 175 years. They didn’t parse their words: “Choosing Donald Trump for president is choosing fiction over fact — a fatal mistake.”
