We have always, in this country, had a portion of the population, who do not trust science and medical professionals.
While I DO NOT in any way, support anti-vaccination, anti-science, anti-medicine viewpoints; we also need to understand that on some very tiny level, mistrust of the pharmaceutical industry and of public health are valid. There have been sufficient stories about the pharmaceutical industry pushing government to approve medications that ended up causing harm, and of pushing medications on doctors knowing that they were addictive or caused harm in other ways. While, again, I will say, that this should not create such vehemence in the anti-vaccination movement, it does give them fuel. Likewise, there are historical issues within the medical and public health fields that do not promote 100% trust. The Tuskegee experiments for one, the sterilization and testing of birth control on Puerto Rican women, and other situations.
When people feel lied to or powerless, they will become vulnerable to unethical people who will prey on them with wrong, but "certain" information. Our brains are hardwired to accept authoritative information, even if it is wrong. That is why crooks are often called Con men or Confidence men. They exude confidence and gain your confidence/trust and then they steal from you. The internet just allowed the practice to move from local street corners or seedy magazines, to the tips of our fingers. I am sure if I wanted to, I could find a dozen websites that are certain that vaccinations are part of a sinister plot between big pharmaceutical companies and the government, which they have captured, to inject us with some sort of tracking devices so that... (whatever people fear whether dominance, control, stealing, etc...).
On this very forum, we often rail against the wealthy (I know I do) because we believe (with fairly good evidence) that they would like to be dominant in society with most of the benefits of said society, going to them. Well, the wealthy own the pharmaceutical industry. The wealthy also have an outsized voice in government. It isn't a far leap to think that there is some kind of cynical collusion between the two.
The problem is that the attribution and solution to said problems becomes: Install Trump, or some other right wing government. Or, don't get vaccinated to protect yourself and others, just take a horse de-worming pill that has no science backing its use for COVID-19. One of the solutions is to demand accountability and transparency from pharmaceutical companies and the government, especially in situations where there is not really a "States Secrets" or national defense situation, but there is a public health concern. Remove the profit motive from medicine. Medicine should be a societal good. That doesn't mean that doctors, researchers, etc... should not be well compensated. It means that profit should not be a prime driver of the development of medications and treatments for disease.
Also, we need to get WAY better at teaching the scientific method, how to interpret evidence, logic, and how to find and evaluate trustworthy sources. Those things are sorely lacking in our schools.
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