I don't care if you're an epidemiologist

Date : 16 Feb 2022 By Brook Warner

I don’t care if you’re a nurse or a doctor or even an epidemiologist. The point is, it’s not about what any one single person or even small group of people think. That’s not how science works.

Science is about disproving the status quo with enough overwhelming evidence that your fellow scientists can replicate your findings and agree to change the commonly held belief.

They’ll also tear your results and discussion and conclusion to shreds to see how it stands up. If it still stands after all of that, then things can change. If it can’t withstand that process, then you either try again with new data, or you accept the status quo and move on.

This is the scientific method, and it’s what has got us to this point as a species. This is how we now have longer life spans, sanitation, health care, modern medicine, as well as all the other myriad of technological advancements achieved via this empirical process.

So I repeat: if someone(s) are claiming that they know something the scientific community doesn’t, it sounds like they’re just unable to provide convincing evidence to change the status quo. People can’t replicate their results. Science is always interested in the truth, no matter how unconventional it may seem at the time - provided it passes the above.

Additionally, you can’t choose to accept the findings of the scientific method in one area, and then claim it’s bogus in another. It’s a way of thinking and working.

Somehow, people have become convinced that science is an institution that now needs to be questioned as to its ulterior motives - a “big” something akin to big oil, rather than a method, a process, a community of people who choose to follow a way of thinking that’s been around for centuries.

For those who claim “big pharma” is somehow twiddling the strings, I’d love to know why they never came and saw me in my lab? I never got any sly $100 bills just tucked into my lab note book, nor any visits from anyone actually. Perhaps that’s because, it’s just a bunch of like minded individuals trying to find a way to help their fellow humans.