{"id":159285,"date":"2024-08-15T11:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/rwddev\/?p=159285"},"modified":"2024-08-30T15:45:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T19:45:41","slug":"is-science-in-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/is-science-in-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"Is science in danger?: Albert Driedger | Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Albert Driedger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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I spent a couple of days paying attention to an online conference at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning some aspects of medical record keeping in research projects and the examination of biases that obscure the value of research results to some of the participants. It became a major focus of the discussions that the simplistic designation of research subjects as either male or female, for example, overlooks a significant minority of people who do not choose to identify as either and, as a result, miss out on opportunities to participate in research that would improve their healthcare. It was shocking to learn that various Republican-controlled US state legislatures have passed slightly more than 120 bills, and counting, in the past 18 months alone, all to restrict the rights of transgendered people to receive medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And not only healthcare; there was an example presented from Texas, in which a designated beneficiary was blocked from receiving the proceeds of a will on the grounds that she, being a transgender person, was not legally a spouse since transgendered people are not allowed to marry in that state. The presenters at this symposium were all concerned that any perverse interpretation of any obscure Scripture could be used to obstruct funding of any branch of scientific research. I agree that the dangers inherent in the Republican line of thought are real and very threatening. Similar things have happened in the past; remember that Hamid Al-Ghazali\u2019s injunction against mathematics as the work of the Devil in the 11th<\/sup> century helped to destroy the science research structure of the Islamic world of his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept that medicine might prevent or cure a disease rather than just charitably reduce the misery of illness was resisted almost as soon as it was first articulated. In 1796, Edward Jenner, an English country doctor, noticed that milkmaids who worked closely with cows and were exposed to cowpox became immune to smallpox, a scourge that exacted a high mortality in the human population. Jenner became famous for his discovery, and his vaccination method first controlled and, in our lifetime, eliminated smallpox, but the Church severely criticized him for daring to interfere with the will of God. Since then and to this day, there has been opposition to immunization on a host of successive trumped-up excuses that have been as impervious to reason as was the original concept of the supposed will of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearer to modern times, following the development of the polio vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) embarked on a project to eliminate this disease from the Earth in the manner in which smallpox had been defeated. There was extensive success and eventually, polio remained only in a few hard-to-reach regions several decades ago. The job would have been done by now, except that some extremists began to proclaim an assertion that the immunizations were really intended covertly to sterilize Islamic women. Then, an entire WHO team was murdered. The project floundered in those turbulent times. Now, polio is making a comeback, and nowhere more inconveniently so than in Gaza last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the social turmoil we endured over resistance to the COVID vaccine as recently as 3-5 years ago. Should there ever be a government elected with similar anti-vaccine tendencies, vaccine research funding might be interrupted. This is an issue of international importance because viruses respect no borders and rogue public health policies in just a single jurisdiction might destabilize the health of a large region or the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The continuous flow of intellectual pressure from scientific research along the margins of ignorance always bears unexpected dividends. Consider that the line of investigation that first led to the COVID vaccine is now providing the first-ever vaccine against malaria and that several similar vaccines, presently in development, show promise in cancer prevention and\/or treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have close ties with the Americans in many areas, including astronomy. Consider here Canadian funding and collaborations of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) where our collective ability to look ever farther back in time is leaving creationists with an ever-decreasing space in which to postulate a creative hand of God. Are we at risk that a future American administration supported by fundamentalist Christians might be persuaded to reduce or withdraw the funding of basic research such as this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the best consequences of Charles Darwin\u2019s theory was that he opened a door for biology and medicine to progress from specimen collecting and anecdotes to experimental biomedicine. In the Soviet Union, Stalin rejected the Darwinian view outright; some objecting scientists and physicians were exiled to the Gulag and others executed for their dedication to intellectual integrity. The result was that for the duration of that regime, there was a disincentive to test bold hypotheses for reasons of personal safety. In the absence of vigorous reality testing, there isn\u2019t likely to be a major advancement in any field. The USSR produced no new antibiotics, cancer therapies, etc. throughout its lifetime. The echoes of the Soviet past are discernible in the Republican themes and too close for comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a scientist and not a politician, but I\u2019m smart enough to know when one should be concerned. I don\u2019t want to be a doomsaying prophet, and I take heart in the increasing likelihood that Kamala Harris will help Americans refocus themselves toward governance through values, policies, and legislation and away from the impulsive and prejudicial arbitrariness that has been the hallmark so far in this American election cycle. I share the concerns of the trans people, as detailed at the NIH conference, and of other minorities should their fears be realized, but, in fact, at this moment, we are all in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Albert Driedger is a retired physician and scientist and Professor Emeritus at Western University, Faculty of Medicine. He retired to Huntsville three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Albert Driedger I spent a couple of days paying attention to an online conference at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning some aspects of medical record keeping in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1904,"featured_media":159291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs science in danger?: Albert Driedger | Commentary - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The simplistic designation of research subjects as either male or female overlooks a significant minority who do not identify as either.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/is-science-in-danger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is science in danger?: Albert Driedger | Commentary - 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