Eric Topol
"The U.S. must also recognize how anti-science rhetoric has emerged as a new lethal force and find mechanisms to halt its advance."
"The unvaccinated were targeted by a well-financed and newly politicized anti-vaccine movement."
https://latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-09-22/antiscience-climate-change-covid-vaccines-antivax
Opinion: From COVID to climate, scientists need defending

Americans need science to sustain democracy and progress. The alternative is to follow the path of the Soviet Union: sidelining experts and sacrificing lives.

Los Angeles Times
Sep 22, 2023 at 7:41pmWeb
Show threadmORASep 22, 2023
@erictopol @beep
«There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been.
The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge”
(Isaac ASIMOV)»
Show threadkelleynnnSep 22, 2023
@mora @erictopol @beep I'd bet $$ the same Objectivists etc I saw frothing about "Lysenkosim" on Facebook turned right around and became anti vax nuts
Show threadwesSep 23, 2023
@erictopol i think folks aren’t trusting them because of who pays them
Show threadgasullSep 23, 2023
@erictopol The vaccines arrived too late, when the particular strain was not in circulation anymore. It's like getting a flu vaccine from 3 years ago.
Show threadDavid ReinertsonSep 23, 2023
@erictopol Most people don’t have college degrees. Communicating with people outside your area of expertise and respecting expertise are both important.
A high school education should be enough to engage with vaccine public health issues at the newspaper level.
Show threadTrue SlickySep 23, 2023
@erictopol
Show threadVoronSep 24, 2023
@erictopol good article. 👍
Unfortunately over the last 4 decades the wealthy have made the government their bitch, I don’t see much defending on the horizon until there is a serious change made by the voters like a huge massive change.