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David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
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9 Dec, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Ugh. This article's headline is ridiculous. The application of scientific findings to policy has ALWAYS been political. It has to be, because it's policy. bigthink.com/13-8/science-p…
Even the article about how we trust the science behind airplanes and the people flying and maintaining them because of their knowledge is off-base, as all of the safety standards behind the aviation industry have been codified as law, which is an inherently political process.
Even the PART of the article about how we trust the science behind airplanes...😂🤦🏻‍♂️
Anyway, this whole "science should be apolitical" narrative never fails to annoy me, because if you want policy to be based on science and evidence it is impossible to be apolitical.

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More from @gorskon

David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
12 Dec
Lindsay quotes the dishonest antivaxxer @RobertKennedyJr, who lies and misrepresents what @PeterHotez actually said. He said nothing about "snuffing out" antivaxxers (they are *not* "vaccine skeptics") nor did he say anything about making criticism of Anthony Fauci a felony. 1/
Contrary to what the clueless @ConceptualJames claims by citing the utterly dishonest antivaxxer@RobertKennedyJr, what @PeterHotez was referring to was not criticism of Fauci, but threats and violence against vaccine advocates. 2/ journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ar…
As for the bit about receiving grants from the @NIAIDNews, a branch of @NIH, it's very telling that @ConceptualJames thinks that these are conflicts of interest with respect to Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci, for instance, does not personally decide who gets grants. 3/
Read 11 tweets
David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
11 Dec
Yes! #LabLeak proponents are a lot like creationists in that their entire argument is an appeal to incredulity. Because we haven't nailed down how #SARSCoV2 jumped to humans, they argue, the virus must have been "designed" in a lab by a creator or leaked from a lab.
The basic idea is that they can't believe #COVID19 could have emerged naturally or, having emerged naturally, jumped from animals to humans without the intervention of an intelligence. In the case of creationists, that intelligence is God. In #LabLeak, it's scientists.
And I agree fully with this!
Read 4 tweets
David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
10 Dec
That was painfully close to where I spent my teen years. Also, I'm really disturbed to see a @McLarenHealth neurosurgeon spreading #COVID19 misinformation like this.
Note the logo of the #COVID19 minimizing, #ivermectin-pushing group America's Frontline Doctors in the upper lefthand corner.
Yes, Dr. Avery Jackson is promoting #COVID19 misinformation. Lest you doubt me, here's him invoking Nuremberg, saying that #CovidVaccine is killing people. sallieborrink.com/community/coro…
Read 4 tweets
David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
8 Dec
This is a very old antivax trope. Antivaxxers have been claiming that vaccines cause infertility for as long as I can remember since I first started paying attention to the antivaccine movement. Unfortunately, this claim resonates. The disinformation works. 1/
It worked in Kenya in 2014, when antivaxxers claimed that the tetanus vaccine caused infertility in young women. 2/ respectfulinsolence.com/2014/11/13/cat…
It worked in Nigeria in 2004, when an antivax crank claimed that the polio vaccine was contaminated with "sterilizing agents."3/
Read 18 tweets
David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
7 Dec
The unvaccinated described as being treated like "second class citizens"? I wonder if @reason knows that that's rhetoric straight from the antivaccine movement dating back as long as I've been paying attention to antivaxxers (nearly two decades). Not a good look.
I suppose that next @reason will be comparing the unvaccinated to the "new civil rights movement."🙄
Hmmm. @reason seven years ago vs Reason now...
Read 4 tweets
David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture
7 Dec
Yes. A continuing frustration I’ve had with colleagues whom #COVID19 finally woke up to the danger of the antivax movement is that they frequently mistakenly conflate vaccine hesitancy with antivaccine views. The two are not the same. The strategies for each are very different.
Basically, the hard core antivaxxers who create and disseminate the antivax disinformation to which the vaccine hesitant fall victim are very much like religious or political zealots or fanatics. They are immune to facts and science. 2/
To hard core antivaxxers, antivax ideology is part of their identity, every bit as much as a person’s religion. Except in vanishingly rare cases, facts and science won’t sway them. 3/
Read 4 tweets

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