Headlines of the past couple weeks have highlighted two stories that are dissimilar but sprout from common roots. In the process, the items point out a dangerous underlying flaw with the digital age.
In one, Clark County has been struck with a measles outbreak that has infected more than 40 people. This might seem odd, considering that measles was deemed eradicated in the United States in the early 2000s, but is entirely predictable in the context of a growing anti-vaccine movement. Spurred by fraudulent science and misinformation, many people are eschewing the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination despite mountains of evidence that the vaccine is safe and reliable.
The result — dozens of infections in a single county — was to be expected. When people don’t take reasonable and simple precautions against disease, then disease spreads.
In the other notable news story, much of the country has been experiencing record cold. Temperatures hit minus 56 degrees in Cotton, Minn., and minus 38 degrees in Mt. Carroll, Ill.; even Chicago, a metro area that is home to nearly 10 million people, has seen lows of minus 20 degrees. Throw in a little wind, and it feels even colder.
States from the Eastern Seaboard to the Midwest and as far south as Georgia have experienced bone-chilling weather thanks to what is known as a polar vortex — a mass of cold air that circulates in the Arctic and has dipped toward the south. This has led those who deny the existence of climate change to chortle that we could use some global warming about now. “People can’t last outside even for minutes,” President Trump wrote on Twitter. “What the hell is going on with Global Waming? (sic) Please come back fast, we need you!”
It’s not often that one can find commonalities between a measles outbreak and a cold snap. And yet they both call to mind a disturbing and growing desire among Americans to ignore science.
In a 2015 cover story for National Geographic, titled “Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?,” Joel Achenbach wrote: “There are so many of these controversies these days, you’d think a diabolical agency had put something in the water to make people argumentative. And there’s so much talk about the trend these days — in books, articles, and academic conferences — that science doubt itself has become a pop-culture meme.”
Be it vaccines or climate change or fluoridation or genetically modified foods, you don’t have to look very hard to find a theorist claiming there is some government plot behind the issue. That willingness to discredit science is damaging to our advancement as a species and our ability to deal with pressing issues.
Take the anti-vaccine movement. It was sparked by a fraudulent paper 20 years ago linking vaccines to autism. The “research” was fabricated, and normal scientific procedures failed to keep it from reaching the public. Since then, numerous rigorous studies have determined that vaccines are safe and effective.
Or take climate change. A vast majority of climate scientists — one survey of publications says 97 percent — believe that the earth is warming and that human activity contributes to that. The polar vortex itself, scientists say, is exacerbated by climate change that has allowed it to escape its normal boundaries.
Science is not infallible. But it is essential to remember that studies are undertaken by experts and reviewed by peers. We should be inclined to believe people who study these issues rather than the School of Google.
