Comment on "influencers" are setting us back
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 6 days agoNo, not in the cases of vaccines or climate change. The incredibly overwhelming majority of scientists are on the plainly correct side of both of those, they don’t have to be geniuses for that, just somewhat educated.
casualvagrancy@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Highly educated and credentialed people have complex disagreements on both subjects.
Climate change: that the climate changes and is changing is self-evident, but how it will change and how much of that change is influenced by human activity is a subject of fierce debate.
Vaccines: while nobody thinks that vaccines are never effective, studies consistently show links between high vaccination and chronic health issues, leading to many highly credentialed and educated doctors and researchers arguing that vaccines are a risk factor for SIDs and allergic rhinitis.
Henry Ford Health recently conducted a large study, which they themselves described as near perfect, that showed links to many chronic health conditions, though not autism.
Fluke@feddit.uk 6 days ago
The only reason there is any “fierce debate” about either of those topics, is because vested interests are spending a lot of money to have voices shout very loudly but knowingly in the wrong, in order to prolong the status quo.
The oil industry, for example, is one of the most heavily subsidised, highly profitable industries. That only remains so if the world’s demand for oil and gas remains insatiable.
Time and again, leaks, lawsuits and increasingly rare/dangerous investigative journalism have shown various oil and gas companies up to the fucking elbows in corrupt practices -ranging from skewed science to outright murder- to deny the extraordinary effects of burning their fuels, let alone the absolutely insane list of environmental damage that is accruing from all the non-fuel petroleum products society has been conditioned to be reliant on.
There is no disagreement on human caused climate change besides “Just how utterly fucked are our grandkids?”.
casualvagrancy@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I’m inclined to agree. But that demonstrates the point: you can find highly credentialed and educated experts on both sides of any issue.
Vaccines are unique in that one side (big pharma) has unlimited money, while the other side (doctors, scientists, and parents) don’t have nearly the same funding, and stand to lose everything by speaking out, yet still do at great personal cost.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
You have clearly been misled by propaganda. There is no broad disagreement about these issues. If there is debate about “how much climate change is caused by human activity” it is regarding the third nine after the decimal point of the percentage figure, which might be debated fiercely but makes no difference at all to the overall message.
casualvagrancy@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Yes. The debate was about whether highly credentialed and educated experts can be wrong due to perverse incentives. As you pointed out, yes they can.
You can find so-called experts on both sides of any issue, so saying “a subset of so-called experts agree with me” is not a slam dunk argument.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
You know what else leads to much higher levels of chronic health conditions? Viral infections.
You will have 1 in a million adverse events with a glass of water.
casualvagrancy@lemmy.world 6 days ago
It’s not a 1 in a million chance. It’s a lot higher.
Do you know how vaccines (live attenuated or adjuvanated) work?