Point taken, but it isn't just a matter of individuals, it is a popular movement that has captured a significant part of role of regulators. The research is still valuable, but its lack of influence is not a problem that is safe to dismiss.
Unfortunately, fighting the movement doesn't do anything for anyone. We both agree you need to fix the regulators - that's the thing you can change, and the actions that help there look nothing like arguing with the movement.
I agree that fighting the movement is generally futile, but I think there is a lot still to understand about where it comes from and better ways to respond. I think it is a lot of small factors that work together. It seems like our education system is phoning it in, not so much on the level of teachers but culturally. As someone who has spent a large part of my life in academia, I see problems there too that contribute to mistrust. I think the growing divide in our culture has resulted in fewer conservative voices within that sphere of influence, and they quite understandably feel shut out and uninvested.
Yep, the education system is phoning it in. Competition really does help - everyone seems to hate charter schools, for instance, but they seem to be helping in some areas.
The problem with the recent (Tuesday) Supreme Court overturning of Humphreys Executor^ is that it makes Congressionally-intended independent regulatory agencies (read: FDA) much more behold-to and controllable-by any current President.
Which turns "fixing the regulator to use facts" back into "convincing enough people to elect a President who believes in the scientific method."
If you're already at the point of thinking about national politics, you won't have an impact.
If your goal is to get more people vaccinated, the best thing you can do is going to be local. Funding or volunteering at free vaccination drives. Getting vaccination science into your local school curriculum early. Asking your local health department what they are struggling with.
It's important, if one is able, to also push towards supporting a regulatory process that allows vaccines to be researched, productized, tested, approved, and covered by insurers.
All of which the current US administration is actively trying to attack.
I'm normally on the side of Trump et al. simply being incompetent or stupid, but the anti-vax campaign by RFK Jr. at HHS is 100% targeted and coordinated at decreasing by any means available the public's ability to access vaccines.
It's more akin to religion for those anti-science fuckers. (The ends justify any means)
Each of us as individuals has only a little time each day to spend on things like this. You don't have a path to fixing national politics. You CAN help locally.
