{"id":2203,"date":"2024-11-26T07:43:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T07:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=2203"},"modified":"2024-11-26T07:43:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T07:43:07","slug":"stick-to-the-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=2203","title":{"rendered":"Stick to the Science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n

By KIM BELLARD<\/p>\n

A year ago I wrote<\/a> about disturbing news from the Pew Research Center that trust in science, and in scientists, had fallen since the pandemic. I am slightly relieved to report that a new follow-up study by Pew<\/a> indicates that trust is up slightly<\/em> \u2013 but still way below where they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n

Overall, 76% of Americans express fair or a great deal of confidence in scientists to act in the public\u2019s best interests (versus 87% in April 2020). The public is about evenly split about how active a role scientists should take in policy debates \u2013 51% think they should, 48% think they should stick to science. A year ago those numbers were flipped.<\/p>\n

I think about all this in the context of the proposed members of President-elect Trump\u2019s health team, whose takes on \u201cscience\u201d are often considered out of the mainstream.<\/p>\n

Trump surprised many a few months ago when he brought Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into his fold. Over the years, RFK Jr., an environmental lawyer by background, has expressed numerous startling views<\/a> about health and our healthcare system. According<\/a> to Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, RFK Jr. \u201cis just in a category by himself. R.F.K. Jr. just willfully disregards existing evidence, relies on talking points that have been consistently debunked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Trump vowed: \u201cI\u2019m going to let him go wild on health. I\u2019m going to let him go wild on the food. I\u2019m going to let him go wild on the medicines.\u201d He has now named him as his candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

The team behind RFK Jr. have their own unconventional views. A quick rundown:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Dave Weldon for CDC Director<\/strong>: He has a long history of vaccine skepticism, and while in Congress authored the Weldon Amendment, which provided protections for anti-abortion healthcare workers and organizations. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The New York Times<\/em><\/a>: \u201cThe notion that this man who held a series of false beliefs about science and medicine could rise to the position where he would head the C.D.C. is in some sense frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Marty Makary for FDA Commissioner<\/strong>: During the pandemic, he expressed a great deal of sympathy for letting herd immunity work, and opposed vaccine mandates\/masking requirements. He has charged: \u201cthe greatest perpetrator of misinformation has been the United States government with the food pyramid,\u201d and \u2013 very similar to RFK Jr\u2019s views \u2014 has said: \u201cWe have poisoned our food supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Mehmet Oz for CMS: <\/strong>On his long-running TV show, Dr. Oz was known foradvocating a variety of dubious health claims<\/a>, and was especially known for marketing supplements, about which he once admitted<\/a> \u201cdon\u2019t have the scientific muster to present as fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for NIH Director<\/strong>: He was the coauthor of the controversial \u201cGreat Barrington Declaration<\/a>,\u201d which decried what the authors thought was government overreaction to COVID and called for more \u201cfocused protection.\u201d He particularly was critical of Dr. Fauci.<\/p>\n

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General<\/strong>: In theory, she supports vaccines, but she has also touted<\/a> the \u201ctransformative power of prayer,\u201d and has hawked<\/a> her own line of dietary supplements.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Mazer, writing in The Atlantic<\/em><\/a>, says: \u201cBut what unites them all\u2014and what legitimizes them in the eyes of this next administration\u2014is a lasting rage over COVID.\u201d He further explains:<\/p>\n

The world, as Kennedy, Makary, Bhattacharya, and their compatriots variously understand it, is dreadful: SARS-CoV-2 was likely created in a lab in Wuhan, China; U.S. officials tried to\u00a0cover up<\/a>\u00a0that fact; and the government responded to the virus by ignoring scientific evidence, violating citizens\u2019 civil rights, and suppressing dissent.<\/p>\n

As a result, many experts are wary. \u201cWhen we get into another firefight with a microbe, we need all hands on deck, and we need the best science and the best public health practice to come forward,\u201d Michael T. Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious-disease expert, told The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> \u201cI\u2019m not confident at this point that this administration can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that these picks are more focused on talking points of the past (and some unsubstantiated) than preparing for the future,\u201d Katelyn Jetelina, a California epidemiologist tracking bird flu and other outbreaks,\u00a0also told WaPo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Some more mainstream experts see the picks as part of the libertarian \u201cmedical freedom\u201d movement. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone back to the idea of \u2018every man his own doctor,\u201d Howard Markel, an emeritus professor of pediatrics and history at the University of Michigan, told KFF Health News<\/em>.<\/a> He called it a bad idea then, and a bad idea now.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience is losing its place as a source of truth,\u201d Dr.\u00a0Paul Offit told WSJ<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s becoming just another voice in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sad thing is that we do need major changes. CDC made many blunders during the pandemic. Over the past forty years, we have allowed the food industry to create an obesity crisis. The FDA is riddled with conflicts of interests, and its regulation has often been ineffective. Our payment structures for Medicare and Medicaid are at best antiquated and at worse incentivize expensive and often ineffective care. I could go on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are playing with fire with the shake-ups and choices, but at this point change is needed,\u201d Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and former Harvard professor, told NYT<\/em><\/a>. \u201cAt least there\u2019s a better chance of positive change compared to complacency and more of the same.\u201d \u00a0Even the liberal Editorial Board of WaPo<\/em> agrees the FDA needs an overhaul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neal Barsky, writing in The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, argues to give RFK Jr. a chance:<\/p>\n

He recognizes the inordinate control the pharmaceutical and food industries over healthcare policy, and the revolving door that exists among congressional staffers, pharmaceutical lobbyists and corporate executives\u2026He advocates<\/a> banning pharmaceutical advertising on television, and wants to clamp down on the corporate ties to federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and National Institute of Health.<\/p>\n

Mr. Barsky\u2019s key advice: \u201cLose the conspiracies and stick to the science.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Pew report found people generally don\u2019t think scientists make better policy decisions than others, and are split about equally as to if scientists base decisions on facts or are as biased as the rest of us. These appointees are going to test our views on science versus science that is really just someone\u2019s opinion. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping all Trump\u2019s appointees take Mr. Barsky\u2019s advice and stick to actual science. And I\u2019m hoping that in its zeal to get rid of the \u201cdeep state\u201d we don\u2019t lose the expertise that we still very much need.<\/p>\n

Kim is a former emarketing exec at a major Blues plan, editor of the late & lamented\u00a0<\/em>Tincture.io<\/em><\/a>, and now regular THCB contributor<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By KIM BELLARD A year ago I wrote about disturbing news from the Pew Research Center that trust in science, and in scientists, had fallen since the pandemic. I am slightly relieved to report that a new follow-up study by Pew indicates that trust is up slightly \u2013 but still way below where they were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}