Feb 1, 2022 07:28 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 1, 2022 07:35 PM by C C.)
Who will defend embattled scientists?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/27/o...cientists/
EXCERPTS (Peter Hotez): Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, being a public defender of vaccines was not rewarding. After I wrote the book “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad,” about my daughter, as a means to debunk false assertions alleging vaccine-autism links and educate the public about the origins and causes of autism, I became a target of antivaccine groups.
Their threats (which continue) through e-mails, social media, personal confrontations, and anonymous phone calls, assert that I maintain secret ties to big pharma [...] or that I have financial motivations (I don’t). In some cases, the threats were overtly antisemitic and included horrific images from the Holocaust.
During the pandemic, the anti-science attacks have gotten worse. Adding to my distress is that many scientific professional organizations do not speak out to defend scientists or offer us assistance.
I have been outspoken about the dangers of refusing a COVID-19 vaccination [...] overwhelmingly Republican or conservative stronghold areas exhibit the lowest acceptance of COVID-19 vaccinations, and consequently the highest number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19.
Those who defy vaccines are paying with their lives. They are victims of media outlets and even members of Congress who openly espouse antivaccine views. Last summer, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called vaccinators “medical brown shirts” [...] Some elected officials have since taken this a step further by seeking to discredit individual biomedical scientists.
I was ridiculed by Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida [...] and, earlier this month, I was targeted by Greene and Steve Bannon ... a week after our research team announced emergency use authorization in India of a recombinant protein COVID vaccine for global health. Such statements are often followed by threatening e-mails and other notes accusing me of “crimes against humanity” or warning that I will soon be hunted by “armed patriots.” During the Jewish high holidays ... I was stalked and heckled.
Other scientists have fared worse, including Dr. Anthony Fauci... [...] For biomedical scientists laboring to shape new approaches or therapeutics to combat COVID-19 there is really no roadmap for how to respond or seek protections...
Fifty years ago, American scientists founded the Committee of Concerned Scientists to defend their colleagues abroad — many from authoritarian states such as Turkey or China where they experienced human rights violations. However [...] How can society address a far-right US authoritarian movement seeking to undermine scientists?
We need an organization that is prepared to defend biomedical scientists... (MORE - details)
The cognitive bias that tripped us up during the pandemic
https://theconversation.com/the-cognitiv...mic-175015
INTRO: The human brain is a marvellous machine, capable of handling complex information. To help us make sense of information quickly and make rapid decisions, it has learned to use shortcuts, called “heuristics”. Most of the time, these shortcuts help us to make good decisions. But sometimes they lead to cognitive biases.
Answer this question as quickly as you can without reading on: which European country was hit the hardest by the pandemic? If you answered “Italy”, you’re wrong. But you’re not alone. Italy is not even in the top ten European countries by the number of confirmed COVID cases or deaths.
It is easy to understand why people might give a wrong answer to this question – as happened when I played this game with friends. Italy was the first European country to be hit by the pandemic, or at least this is what we were told at the beginning. And our perception of the situation formed early on with a focus on Italy. Later, of course, other countries were hit worse than Italy, but Italy is the name that got stuck in our heads.
Transparent, research-based, written by experts – and always free.
The trick of this game is to ask people to answer quickly. When I gave friends time to think or look for evidence, they often came up with a different answer – some of them quite accurate. Cognitive biases are shortcuts and shortcuts are often used when there are limited resources – in this case, the resource is time.
This particular bias is called “anchoring bias”. It occurs when we rely too heavily on the first piece of information we receive about a topic and fail to update our perception when we receive new information.
As we show in a recent work, anchoring bias can take more complex forms, but in all of them, one feature of our brain is essential: it is easier to stick to the information we have stored first and try to work out our decisions and perceptions starting from that reference point – and often not going too far... (MORE - details)
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/27/o...cientists/
EXCERPTS (Peter Hotez): Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, being a public defender of vaccines was not rewarding. After I wrote the book “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad,” about my daughter, as a means to debunk false assertions alleging vaccine-autism links and educate the public about the origins and causes of autism, I became a target of antivaccine groups.
Their threats (which continue) through e-mails, social media, personal confrontations, and anonymous phone calls, assert that I maintain secret ties to big pharma [...] or that I have financial motivations (I don’t). In some cases, the threats were overtly antisemitic and included horrific images from the Holocaust.
During the pandemic, the anti-science attacks have gotten worse. Adding to my distress is that many scientific professional organizations do not speak out to defend scientists or offer us assistance.
I have been outspoken about the dangers of refusing a COVID-19 vaccination [...] overwhelmingly Republican or conservative stronghold areas exhibit the lowest acceptance of COVID-19 vaccinations, and consequently the highest number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19.
Those who defy vaccines are paying with their lives. They are victims of media outlets and even members of Congress who openly espouse antivaccine views. Last summer, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called vaccinators “medical brown shirts” [...] Some elected officials have since taken this a step further by seeking to discredit individual biomedical scientists.
I was ridiculed by Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida [...] and, earlier this month, I was targeted by Greene and Steve Bannon ... a week after our research team announced emergency use authorization in India of a recombinant protein COVID vaccine for global health. Such statements are often followed by threatening e-mails and other notes accusing me of “crimes against humanity” or warning that I will soon be hunted by “armed patriots.” During the Jewish high holidays ... I was stalked and heckled.
Other scientists have fared worse, including Dr. Anthony Fauci... [...] For biomedical scientists laboring to shape new approaches or therapeutics to combat COVID-19 there is really no roadmap for how to respond or seek protections...
Fifty years ago, American scientists founded the Committee of Concerned Scientists to defend their colleagues abroad — many from authoritarian states such as Turkey or China where they experienced human rights violations. However [...] How can society address a far-right US authoritarian movement seeking to undermine scientists?
We need an organization that is prepared to defend biomedical scientists... (MORE - details)
The cognitive bias that tripped us up during the pandemic
https://theconversation.com/the-cognitiv...mic-175015
INTRO: The human brain is a marvellous machine, capable of handling complex information. To help us make sense of information quickly and make rapid decisions, it has learned to use shortcuts, called “heuristics”. Most of the time, these shortcuts help us to make good decisions. But sometimes they lead to cognitive biases.
Answer this question as quickly as you can without reading on: which European country was hit the hardest by the pandemic? If you answered “Italy”, you’re wrong. But you’re not alone. Italy is not even in the top ten European countries by the number of confirmed COVID cases or deaths.
It is easy to understand why people might give a wrong answer to this question – as happened when I played this game with friends. Italy was the first European country to be hit by the pandemic, or at least this is what we were told at the beginning. And our perception of the situation formed early on with a focus on Italy. Later, of course, other countries were hit worse than Italy, but Italy is the name that got stuck in our heads.
Transparent, research-based, written by experts – and always free.
The trick of this game is to ask people to answer quickly. When I gave friends time to think or look for evidence, they often came up with a different answer – some of them quite accurate. Cognitive biases are shortcuts and shortcuts are often used when there are limited resources – in this case, the resource is time.
This particular bias is called “anchoring bias”. It occurs when we rely too heavily on the first piece of information we receive about a topic and fail to update our perception when we receive new information.
As we show in a recent work, anchoring bias can take more complex forms, but in all of them, one feature of our brain is essential: it is easier to stick to the information we have stored first and try to work out our decisions and perceptions starting from that reference point – and often not going too far... (MORE - details)
