Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Time Has Come To Think

The weight of words blows me away. There is both a sense of power and a sense of weakness behind them - something truly challenging for me as an aspiring physician and science writer. This power and weakness can readily be exemplified by the vaccine and autism controversy.  No scientific study, done ethically, shows a correlation between vaccines and autism.  Furthermore, the risks associated with being unvaccinated is far grearter than the potential risks of vaccination.  Just take a look at this to put things in perspective:

However, the 1998 Wakefield et al study incorrectly claimed there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.  It was later retracted/discredited for unethical research.  But, the misinformation was already out, the damage already done.  The rate of vaccinations in children fell fairly significantly after the Wakefield paper.  This leads me to so many questions!
Do people who chose not to vaccinate their children after hearing the findings of the "study" know that it was a fraudulent claim? Unlikely. I read several scientific papers and not once did I think to check if the study was still credited or not. I just assume it's data and findings were and are still valid. Furthermore, even if parents have become aware that the claims in the Wakefield study are incorrect, I think it's unlikely to change their mindset on vaccines. Once someone believes in something very strongly, it's hard to change that. 
Are new parents who attempt to increase their scientific literacy by researching vaccine information on the internet and later becoming vaccine-autism advocates necessarily scientifically ignorant? It is profoundly hard to say. People go online and read a study or a news article or a blog about how vaccines are linked to autism but they had the right intention of learning. As a scientist, I'm so pleased that people aren't just blindly doing whatever the scientists or doctors tell them to without at least trying understand it. It is important for people to find out what vaccines are, why children need them, if there are risks, what the associated risks are, etc, in order to make an informed decision regarding their child's health. On the flip side, still as a scientist, it's troubling to me that people don't know what scientifically sound evidence is and how to go about finding it to make the right decisions.  People usually fail to question what they are reading and rarely find all sides of the story. Once people believe in something, they tend to ignore evidence against their belief. This closed-mindedness, in my opinion, is a form of ignorance in itself and can lead to misinformation. 
As a science writer in support of vaccines, I want to help the average Joe get correct information in an understandable way - but with opposing and influential views (like star Jenny McCarthy's), how can this be done?   How do science writers overcome misinformation? How did a former playboy playmate with no background in science become more reliable than a scientist?! It disheartens me to say that the source through which people get information has a huge impact. Who am I? Just good ol' Ursinus pre-med student, Zeba Hussaini. That name doesn't ring a bell [- yet :)] Who are all those scientists "et al"? Dunno. Who is Jenny McCarthy? ding ding ding! That Playmate of the Year turned mother of an autistic child turned activist and author on parenting! 
Parents have autistic children and it breaks their hearts. They need to know why and they need to know the cure and they need to know it now.  Unfortunately, the science world doesn't know yet but a quick search on Google leads the parents to Jenny McCarthy claiming her son's autism had been "cured". The emotional parents cling on to the heart-wrenching words by Jenny McCarthy and other vaccine-autism advocates.  Suddenly, they have found others who are in the same position. There is power in numbers. The parents find support, something to blame, and reinforcement. There's no longer a need for sound scientific back-up because there's emotional bias, source-confirmation bias, herd-mentality bias and that, however unfortunate, is enough for people to put their children and others at risk by refusing vaccinations. This concept is so deeply ingrained in some vaccine-autism advocates that there mind is never going to change (the "gone cases"). But there are those who are a little bit more open minded and who scientists and science writers, can lead in the right direction, if done correctly. Informative and pleasant dialogue can be just what a person needs to be persuaded. Nobody wants to hear "You're wrong, this is the complicated scientific evidence why: blah blah blah blah blah." If scientists and science writers can find the source of misinformation, find evidence to back up the right information, and present it in an appealing, respectful, and most importantly, understandable dialogue, I think it would do wonders. At the very least, cause people to rethink, re-research, and reevaluate their position. And isn't thinking one of the things scientists and science writers want the general public to do?

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