One potentially good thing about the public’s response to the pandemic was a desire to better understand the research enterprise. Read the primary literature and see what it really says. Find the papers that aren’t being mentioned by the mass media. Read the work of scientists that are being censored. All good things. And we need to empower people to do that (more on that below).
And the misinterpretation of scientific studies and the incredibly biased design of other studies has led to a lot of skepticism. Has this skepticism gone too far?
I’ve seen some things on social media that I try to correct when I see it. People will see advertisements for an ongoing research study, or the promotion of an ongoing study, or publication of a completed study, and immediately jump to accusing the scientists of being evil copies of Nazi concentration camp “doctors”. Has there been a lot of unethical research lately, lacking true informed consent, with biases to support The Narrative? Of course. But not even close to all science is bad.
Some of this may come from a lack of understanding of how research is done. This is where more education is needed and is available! If you are interested in understanding how science is done, please check out IPAK-Edu. An epidemiology course just ended and will likely come back next year. A math of vaccine science course will hopefully run this summer. An epidemiology journal club may run in the fall. Stay tuned!
But in short, some science is just descriptive. The key word is “observational”. It is beneficial to understand how the immune system works. Most of these studies are done in vitro (outside the human body, using blood cells obtained ethically). There is potentially great benefit here – like learning that antibody responses acquired through natural exposure are just as robust - if not robust - than those developed in response to a vaccine. A couple of substacks I have written on that are here and here. Observational lab-based studies are very valuable in answering these questions.
Now, is there the potential to use ethical and “good” science for evil purposes? Absolutely. I’ve seen my own work come close to being abused, and all I did was descriptive epidemiology. But frankly that can be done with anything and that doesn’t mean that the scientific enterprise needs to come to a screeching halt.
But we need to be careful and stop spreading paranoia on social media without understanding the underlying study design and goals of research. I strongly recommend you take an IPAK-edu course, or two, or many! These courses are designed for everyday people with the desire to learn.