Science isn’t a philosophy. Science isn’t based on feelings, prejudices or unproven theories. Science isn’t red, and science isn’t blue. Science isn’t politics. Science is proven facts.
But in recent years, science seems to have taken on a new and dangerous role in America: It has become a political weapon. Facts and data have been twisted and even fabricated to serve the narratives of politicians and their campaigns — politicians who seemingly don’t care about the harm done by their manipulations. In an age where scientific misinformation runs rampant, we need to hold politicians accountable for the information they dispense and the officials they appoint.
Scientific misinformation was first spread at a global scale during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the World Health Organization declared a “massive infodemic” of elected officials and social media personalities promoting false narratives and denouncing essential preventative measures like masks and vaccines. Political virtue signaling and protesting led to tens of thousands of deaths due to individuals turning protective measures into political statements.
According to a Cornell study that analyzed 38 million articles about the pandemic, United States President Elect Donald J. Trump made up nearly 40 percent of the “overall misinformation conversation.” As the main driver of scientific misinformation in the United States for the past six years, he is preparing to appoint officials that will carry on his harmful legacy.
The man intended to be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avid anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist. This powerful position oversees both the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Association. Working under him in charge of the NIH would be Jay Bhattacharya, an open critic of the NIH and COVID-19 safety measures.
Trump’s appointees have the potential to be more dangerous than the man himself. Kennedy and Bhattacharya have stated that they plan to eliminate entire divisions of the NIH, which has the potential to significantly disempower one of the leading research institutions in the world. Considering their anti-vaccination beliefs, they could eliminate vaccine mandates and undo decades of progress eliminating dangerous diseases like measles.
Controversial, polarizing individuals like this rise to power when a desperate, faithless America sees them as their only hope of reform. The faith of Americans in medical professionals has dropped from 75 percent to 40 percent in the past 4 years. By making ridiculous claims of false narratives, like doctors executing newborn babies, politicians seed distrust in medical professionals and researchers as a political strategy to draw that trust towards themselves.
To save American lives, we need to restore this faith. We need to remove politics from science, and science from politics. We need to encourage more aggressive and effective fact-checking of politicians, not silence it or avoid it. We need professionals in our government offices, not conspiracy theorists. As young citizens, we have a chance to lobby Congress, the only institution with the power to vet and regulate Trump’s cabinet members. If we can’t step up and do this, the infodemic will never end.