Thread by @PhilippMarkolin

Frustrating but important perspective by @PeterHotez:

"The phenomenon of red Covid was not a random occurrence but instead an expected outcome of predation linked to extremist politics"

Read in full:

A few thoughts follow 🔽
faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fb…

In this perspective, Dr. Hotez offers some insights on the topics I have been writing & talking about, namely the #weaponization of conspiracy #myths by political actors to attack unwelcome scientific authority in public discourse.

He first outlines the damage: Needless deaths

How could it have come so far?

For Dr. Hotez, part of that answer lies with anti-science messaging from political elites; how else does one explain the "red covid" phenomenon?

Furthermore, there has been no course correction by political elites. If anything, they doubled down

...on their anti-scientific messaging while simultaneously creating #political theater and witch hunts against biomedical scientists, both in congress and at the state level.

This is a recipe for disaster on multiple fronts.

First, it threatens past public #health achievements like the domestic eradication of infectious diseases such as measles, polio, whooping cough; who now make a return to threatening the lives of children and families.

Second, anti-science #activism risks America's position as

science superpower, leading to brain drain, competitive #disadvantage and ultimately loss of innovative and economic power that science brings with it.

Also worth mentioning: It is wrong to target scientists with emotional #falsehoods to vilify them.

While I agree with Peter and the above, I think this anti-science #activism by politicians is just the tip of the iceberg.

Science is a #myth buster. It disrupts the convenient stories we tell ourselves, and the narratives told by those who seek to control with fictions.

But that is not new.

What is new are the disruption of our #information sphere that change how information #flows through society; and empowers now mechanisms, actors and narratives in the process, while making us and society #vulnerable to be manipulated.

And since 2020, a perfect mix of biological danger, technological disruption, social rifts and economic incentives have created an information ecosystem where falsehoods flourish, science is called into question, and democracy withers.

How to resolve this #epistemic crisis and stir towards a future where citizens are empowered by information systems, rather than manipulated and exploited by them, is one of the grand challenges of our time, and it deeply impacts #science as well as relies on it.

/end