101
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
101 points (100.0% liked)
Science
13006 readers
1 users here now
Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's mind boggling that people think that they can be more educated than people who literally spent 5 years in medical school.
I guess that's the problem with science industries where people who aren't trained still get a payoff by being wrong (the losses sometimes aren't obvious), whereas being a builder or mechanic (which in my experience tend to be the 2 most cocky industries), the results are often more immediately wrong or right
People think that, because sooner or later they end up meeting someone who spent 5 years in medical school, plus an internship, plus got a masters degree, plus a specialty... yet is still cocky, jumps to conclusions, and refuses to admit being wrong.
That gives people with no clue, the idea that they can be more educated than all medical staff and all scientists. Then shit happens.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfI'm nowhere close to the right, and yet I've experienced it personally more times than I have fingers to count on. Some examples:
(first hand anecdotal evidence)
...there is more, but let me not bore you with anecdotal evidence.
After all that shit, I should have died 5 or 6 times already, so I'm not going to badmouth the medical profession as a whole, and still got all my vaccines... but the fact that there are highly educated jackasses out there, is a fact.
Not sure if you're young, or I'm cursed. My first run into "this" was when I was 13, and keeping a steady streak since then.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfOk. Let me point out I also said "sooner or later", so the longer someone lives, the higher their chances of having encountered an experience like that. Actually... I don't think I've ever met anyone above the age of 60 who hahadn't had some of those at least once, which would be about when most people would've had enough exposure to the medical world... but I wouldn't want to generalize.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfUnfortunately it's a bit more complicated. In France a famous (now more like infamous) virologist, head of an immunology institute, has defended hydroxychloroquin for months, calling COVID-19 a small flu with negligible mortality on all media. Initially as a call to do more experimental medical studies, but he kept at it long after everything he said was disproved by the academic world in general.
He manipulated studies, he put all of his experience, reputation, and inflated ego in the balance, and he acted as a beacon for all conspiracy theories on vaccines, masks and lockdown measures. He even started selling his bullshit in Africa when he was largely exposed as a fraud in France.
That guy alone is responsible for a lot of deaths, and he didn't just spend 5 years in medical school, he directed a medical research institute.
spoiler
asdfasdfsadfasfasdfI huess you need to add the amount of false science to things as an excuse.
Exxon for example spent millions on climate research. And were the first to discover global warming evidence.
But after a change of leadership spent billions on false or questionable science to argue against man made and every other excuse about the evidence.
Plastics is another that did a huge amount of damage to the laymans intrepretation of science.
Plus many many more over the last 4 or 5 decades.
Hard to blame lay men for thinking science is often about the highest bidder rather then formal methods.
It doesn't help when you have people that Supposedly went to Harvard spouting out BS misinformation.