Misinformation and vaccine hesitancy is not something new to the world of science, but at the time of the Covid pandemic “I think there is something that is really fundamentally different” than for example the “denialism that there has been on ‘HIV’ decades ago. “The difference now is theabsolutely massive impact of social media as a vehicle for disinformation. The tsunami age of social media is, for me, something I’ve never experienced on this level before. And that makes the difference. Now the system has been flooded with disinformation. So I don’t know how to counter it”. This is Anthony’s reflection Jaws, the US super scientist who this December will close his experience as chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), center of the National Institutes of Health (Nih). His words are reported in the transcript of an interview granted to Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the ‘Science’ group of magazines.
“It seems to me that the people who are deliberately pushing this misinformation are putting a lot of energy and effort into it, almost like they don’t have a day job, while the people who are countering it with correct information have so many other important things to do. They can’t waste their time to reply every time someone tweets something or writes something that is completely wrong and based on misinformation”, observes Fauci who thinks back to the times of the fight against HIV: “When Peter Duesberg”, a scientist who rose to the headlines for a controversial theory on the origin of AIDS,” and those kids were playing the game of denial, it wasn’t spreading among our young people every time they used TikTok or went to Facebook. I always say: the best way to counter misinformation is to flood the system with correct information. And that’s still true, but we’re battling a huge wave of disinformation.”
Fauci says he has no idea what can really be done. “We need to think of something creative,” he points out, “because we’re really fighting a losing battle here. It’s amazing to me how many people are out of the 100 million who tune in” to programs that spread disinformation. “I mean, we’re losing the war here,” he presses. Fauci also recalls episodes in which he also found himself having to reply to members of the scientific community who, however, were expressing thoughts in sectors not within their competence, scientists yes, but “who knew nothing about virology or epidemiology”. For the expert, “without wanting to silence anyone, you have to retort when someone makes a statement, or a recommendation that clearly, given the evidence-based science, is not true. It is a bit like if you or I decided at the sudden to talk about the strategy with which war is conducted in a certain country, having no military experience”.
Another problem for Fauci is inherent in not fully understanding how science works. “The beauty of what our profession is is precisely the iterative process of self-correction of science – he explains – If you want something to be accepted in our community, go through the process of experimentation, data analysis, data presentation, peer review and judgment of your peers. The non-scientific world perhaps, and probably understandably, thinks that science is absolutely immutable. But if you say something today, and the evidence changes a month, a year later, if you really follow science you will evolve your thinking And as your thinking evolves, you’ll change things like advice or guidelines.” For those who don’t understand the real nature of science, “you are turning things upside down and undermining the whole process. So what we can do best is to explain to people that we tell them something based on the evidence that we have at the time, that we have at dealing with an evolving situation. And at any moment, we don’t know all the answers.”
“There is a certain lack of public appreciation that this is the nature of science – continues Fauci – There are two things that must go forward. We in the scientific community must articulate the uncertainty associated with something that is a real fact now, and explain that we always leave the door open, not to change our minds empirically, but to change our minds based on new data.At the same time, we must do a better job as a nation in educating people for better scientific literacy “Scientific illiteracy is quite disturbing. We need to get people more attuned to understanding what science is.”
As a scientist, assures the expert, “you have a double obligation to tell the truth and not be evasive, because it’s antithetical to scientific principles and that’s what I’ve tried to do. So when people ask me a question, I don’t see any reason not to answer and I think we need to make people in government, especially scientists in government, feel comfortable about it.When I talk to my scientific colleagues in government and they are afraid to say something, I say them behind the scenes: ‘But what’s the matter? You’re not going to lose your job for telling the truth. It might make some people a little concerned, but so what? It doesn’t matter. Be open and transparent.’ And I’ve always found that to me It’s helped a lot, it’s worked out very well.”
