More Musings on Misinformation in Medicine

I’m going to comment on this article: He Built a Wellness Empire While Adventuring With Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The article was in the New York Times but also was re-published in our local paper. This post is not a diatribe against RFK Jr. and his uninformed advisors although I think he is a dangerous person when it comes to his lack of medical knowledge. However, my bigger complaint is that our country allows people like RFK Jr. to spread such horrible misinformation. His anti-vaccine stance is atrocious — full stop. There is really no excuse for this type of pseudoscience rubbish. Unfortunately, humans tend to have magical thinking, and there is a long history of vaccine fear going back to the 1800s. I know much has been written about how to address the international issue of the anti-vaccine movement as well as the tendency for humans to go along with conspiracy theories. From an evolutionary perspective, I guess it makes sense that humans are fearful of the “new” as it might be correlated with the ancient and primal fear of investigating new sounds or sights during the Paleolithic period. Investigating something “new” might lead to one being eaten, thus, ending the genetic line.

Solutions off the top of my head:

1. Bring back the liberal arts in higher education. Learning literature, philosophy, foreign language, art history, and history in general would teach people that humans are quite complicated. We make dumb decisions. We repeat mistakes throughout history. In many ways, training in the liberal arts makes us all become “humanists” in the respect of wanting to respect and protect each other while promoting an equitable society. One can be an atheist and be a humanist. One can be a theist and be a humanist. I am religious and want an equitable society. Access to vaccines to prevent horrendous diseases is a humanist stance.
2. Teach statistics. The United States has a terrible track record of teaching statistics. Thus, our country tends to have a mob decision making capacity without considering nuance. I always have thought that statistics should be a mandatory course(s) in high school and in the undergraduate curriculum. It does not need to be complicated statistical teaching. Medical school should have a dedicated statistics class. My medical school experience consisted of one small book and a 6-week class that was pitiful. Medical school should have at least a college curriculum course equivalent for statistics required by the AAMC. Residencies and fellowships should be required to have a real statistics curriculum in place by the ACGME. It is not hard to open up a Khan Academy video series for trainees to watch and then to follow up with test questions. Some residencies and fellowships offer related MPH and MSc concurrent degrees which is good as these degrees are statistics heavy. What if we made such training more feasible?
3. Stronger messaging by medical societies. I’m sorry, but the American Medical Association has lost so many of its members due to poor messaging, often misplaced priorities, and its inability to listen to member concerns. It is very involved with Medicare cost determination. If one think about how messed up Medicare has become, then one realizes the AMA is partially to blame for the issue. The American Academy of Pediatrics (of which I am a member) had, frankly, a soft statement about RFK, Jr. being nominated as head of Health and Human Services. Just ridiculous. The AAP should have stated that this nomination was dangerous and put the lives of children at risk. The AAP needed to have strong messaging here. I’ll be positive about one organization…the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (of which I am also a member). NASPGHAN has tried very hard to influence legislation in regards to toy magnet dangers and infant formula access even though it is a relatively small society with minimal legislative influence.
4. BETTER SCIENCE EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. If that means cutting athletics to pay for better science education, then so be it.
5. Hey religious people, try acting religious. I’m a religious person. I’m quite particular about where I attend church. I expect church to not be filled with pro-American and anti-science stances. As I have heard before, it is better to be an “American Christian” than to be a “Christian American.” The last noun in the couplet expresses one’s priority. The anti-vaccination movement is steeped in Christian nationalism. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, in Christian nationalism that matches the Beatitudes seen in Matthew 5. Jesus’ Great Commandment (Luke 6:31) will never match Christian nationalism. I’m no Islamic scholar, but the Quran states that God is all forgiving and all kind (85:14). I am sure God would expect God’s followers to be the same, and yes, I know we all fail at loving our neighbor repetitively. If Jesus, Mohammed, and God make it quite clear that we should walk forth in love, then being anti-vaccination in order to bring back horrible diseases seems pretty clearly anti-God.

God gave us brains (even from a process theology or open & relational theology perspective). Brains gave us science. Science, if used well, is a wonderful gift from God.

Odds and Ends:

1. The decline of funding in the liberal arts in U.S. colleges and universities linked here.
2. Consider reading “We Have Never Been Modern” by Bruno Latour. It is relevant.
3. Consider reading “A Secular Age” by Charles Taylor. It is also relevant.