Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on January 16, 2017, 10:47:39 AM
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Saw this elsewhere and it chimed with me. Warning: has picture and mention of David 'Avocado' Wolfe
http://junkee.com/coconut-oil-isnt-magic-vaccines-dont-cause-autism-science-denialism-needs-stop/84894
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Good link - thank you for posting.
By the way, there are, I heard, a couple of images on the way through, one a graph, but my screen showed a blank outline. It doesn't matter, of course!! but any idea why thismight be?
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Can't see any reason why it won't show
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Saw this elsewhere and it chimed with me. Warning: has picture and mention of David 'Avocado' Wolfe
http://junkee.com/coconut-oil-isnt-magic-vaccines-dont-cause-autism-science-denialism-needs-stop/84894
A very interesting article ,thanks. It's a subject I've been 'banging on about' for years according to some members of my family . What I don't understand is the general inability of most people to determine false claims from reality.
And what really concerns me is not what they believe but why they believe it, and this has got me into some considerable bother on my travels , especially in Australia where it seems to be rife.
So now I tend not to question people when they make ridiculous statements and let them get on with it . Its their money they are wasting and its their brains that are being abused , not mine.
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Can't see any reason why it won't show
on my screen the graph part is very faint and blurred , if that helps .
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But we are not australopiths with iPhones.
We are quite sophisticated really. Not only do we habitually generate and distribute false information, we also recognise and avoid it where we can.
This is a lot of the problem as, whenever we hear a message we can be pretty sure that there is someone out to make a profit or other gain from us acting on it. Even this can be exploited, so people just latch onto a wrong idea and can't be shaken from it - taking supportable facts to be part of a conspiracy against them.
The internet, social media, fake news, trolls all stoke this up. In the end people vote for Trump, or against their own freedom to travel or trade etc. Or, worse, kick off terrorist or communal violence of some kind.
Who you gonna call?
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My eldest grandson, now 15, was the only one of my grandchildren not to have the vaccinations as a baby due to that scare story that they caused autism. He is the only one of the five who is autistic!
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But we are not australopiths with iPhones.
We are quite sophisticated really. Not only do we habitually generate and distribute false information, we also recognise and avoid it where we can.
This is a lot of the problem as, whenever we hear a message we can be pretty sure that there is someone out to make a profit or other gain from us acting on it. Even this can be exploited, so people just latch onto a wrong idea and can't be shaken from it - taking supportable facts to be part of a conspiracy against them.
There is of course the 'clutching at straws factor', when - for instance - conventional medicine has not come up with any relief for one's particular health problem. I speak from experience: when suffering unrelenting horrible pain, I sought help from all avenues of the NHS without relief, and then turned to acupuncture and shiatsu and 'cranial osteopathy'. In the first instance it made matters worse, and altogether emptied my bank account - without relief. Fortunately, it was the NHS and a new consultant and diagnosis which eventually resolved my problems.
Of course, there are problems with conventional science - or its application. "Follow the money" is always a useful axiom to keep in mind, with great drug companies and agricultural giants like Monsanto trying to monopolise the market. These factors in themselves can give many people the incentive to turn their backs on scientific rigour for the supposedly 'natural' alternatives instead.
Everyone who is inclined to think that science has got it all wrong, and the 'natural' way is always best should certainly read "Snake Oil and other Preoccupations" by John Diamond, written while he was dying of cancer (in this case he was certainly the 'better half' of his marriage to Nigella Lawson, however much I admire her twin peaks).
Still, nothing wrong with eating lots of garlic, lemon or beetroot. Don't expect miracles from them, though.
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#7 Well said indeed.
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#7 Well said indeed.
Seconded
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There was study on drug trials published in the BMJ yesterday:
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/drug-trials-bias-tainted-results-outcomes/
"More than half the number of trials that study the effectiveness of of drugs could be tainted by financial conflicts of interest, a study published by the BMJ reveals. Researchers investigated the association between financial ties of principal investigators and study outcomes in a random sample of almost 200 trials from 2013. They focused on trials which examined the effectiveness of drugs as these studies have a high impact on both clinical practice and healthcare costs."
"In total, 58 per cent of principal investigators had financial ties to the drug industry – including travel expenses, honorariums, payment for advisory work, or stock ownership. These trials were more likely than others to report favourable results, the researchers founds."
Now, it would take quite a lot of time to go through this study itself, and verify it's conclusions, let alone decide for yourself how concerned one should be ... and a lifetime's work to do anything about it if action is needed.
Or .. you could just take it at face value as evidence to confirm a bias against drug companies and their claims or find reasons not to be concerned or ...
Good thing I'm into stats... :)