174: Everything is Chemistry (w/Drs Andrea Love & Jessica Steier)
Oct 5, 2023
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Drs Andrea Love and Jessica Steier discuss the challenges of science communication in the midst of a pandemic. They emphasize the importance of COVID boosters, debunk misinformation about colloidal silver and essential oils as immune boosters, and explore the difficulties of combating vaccine hesitancy. Additionally, they address the evolving nature of scientific understanding, highlight the risks of essential oils, and stress the need for scientists to communicate effectively and distill complex information.
Vaccines, like COVID boosters, are crucial in preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths as they activate the immune system and protect against respiratory illnesses.
Effective science communication involves tailoring messages to different audiences, providing context, and engaging with communities to build trust in scientific expertise.
Misinformation surrounding biotechnology, vaccines, and infectious diseases hinders progress and undermines public health legislation, highlighting the importance of scientific literacy.
Deep dives
The Importance of Vaccines and Misinformation
Vaccines are one of the most impactful scientific interventions that have improved public health. Misinformation surrounding biotechnology and infectious diseases hinders progress. The vaccines, like the COVID booster, are crucial because the virus mutates, and protection against respiratory illnesses wanes over time. Vaccines help activate the whole repertoire of the immune system and prevent severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths. Vaccines are safe and have been closely monitored. Young and healthy individuals are not immune from severe COVID symptoms. Long COVID is real, and vaccines reduce the likelihood and severity of long COVID.
Challenges of Science Communication
The CDC could have improved public communication about COVID vaccines and boosters. Changes in recommendations without proper context created confusion. Science communication is complex, involving both the big picture and basic understanding. Tailoring messages to different audiences and providing the "why" behind recommendations are important. Scientists need to better engage with communities, local governments, and consider public perception in their messaging. Science communication aims to make people literate enough to differentiate between trustworthy and untrustworthy sources of information.
Addressing Misinformation and Pet Peeves
Misinformation around biotechnology, vaccines, and infectious diseases are major concerns. Fear-mongering and lack of understanding hinder progress in using science and technology to improve agriculture, healthcare, and disease treatment. Misinformation undermines public health legislation and affects the work of scientists. It is frustrating to witness cognitive dissonance in how biopharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors are viewed compared to the wellness industry. Scientific literacy is crucial in countering misinformation and building trust in scientific expertise.
Misinformation in Health: Trust in Science and Medical Establishment
The podcast episode emphasizes that the trust in science and the medical establishment is at an all-time low due to politicization. This lack of trust is hindering progress in improving healthcare outcomes. Vaccines are highlighted as an example, with the belief in quick-fix alternatives and magical pills being detrimental to public health. The episode also criticizes the concept of 'clean,' 'natural,' and 'organic' marketing in the wellness industry, exposing it as a misleading tactic to increase prices. It highlights the negative impact of such marketing on literacy and the potential harm it causes when people opt for ineffective treatments.
Debunking Direct-to-Consumer Health Tests and Essential Oils
The podcast episode debunks direct-to-consumer health tests and essential oils. It explains that these tests lack clinical validation and often rely on pseudoscience. Specifically, food sensitivity tests are described as baseless, as high IgG antibody levels do not indicate actual sensitivity. The microbiome tests are also criticized, as they provide unreliable and inaccurate information about the gut. The episode highlights the importance of understanding that the microbiome varies and the lack of knowledge about its clinical implications. Furthermore, the harmful effects of essential oils are discussed, including misinformation, potential allergies, and reliance on unproven claims. The episode emphasizes the need for evidence-based healthcare and caution when engaging with these wellness trends.
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We love our scicomm episodes, because they really dig into the material heart of the conflicts this project tries to understand. What is this information chaos tearing apart public health? How do you push back against it? What does “follow the science” mean to the average voter? And how do we push back against influencers who exploit the difficulties of science and the reasonable fear that erupts when a virus is on the loose?
One answer is that we produce the best content we can, and our guests today, Drs Andrea Love and Jessica Steier have the chops. Like us, they started the popular “Unbiased Science” podcast during the pandemic in the midst of a tsunami of confusion. Only they come at it from within the sciences: Andrea is an immunologist and biologist who specializes in infectious diseases immunology, cancer immunology, and autoimmunity, while Jessica is a public health scientist who has designed and led multiple COVID-19 related research and science communication projects. This week, they tell Derek why the new COVID boosters are important, discuss the challenges of science communication in an age of misinformation, and confirm that colloidal silver and essential oils are not, in fact, immune boosters.
