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 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.
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’s injunction against mathematics as the work of the Devil in the 11th century helped to destroy the science research structure of the Islamic world of his time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Among the best consequences of Charles Darwin’s 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’t 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.
I’m a scientist and not a politician, but I’m smart enough to know when one should be concerned. I don’t 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.
Albert Driedger is a retired physician and scientist and Professor Emeritus at Western University, Faculty of Medicine. He retired to Huntsville three years ago.
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Bob Braan says
Luckily the US has Biden and likely Harris to follow scientific advice and encourage initiatives to fight climate change.
Instead of them being stuck with Trump again.
“Existence of Climate Change Questioned by President Trump.”
.
Unfortunately Canada could be stuck with Poilievre.
PCs also prefer the ever popular Ostrich Solution.
“Conservative delegates reject adding ‘climate change is real’ to the policy book”
Everything Poilievre says about the carbon tax and it’s effect on inflation is a lie.
For a list of 26 articles that debunk fanatical PC lies regarding the carbon tax and energy go to:
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/to-a-good-future/
3 more
https://southmuskoka.doppleronline.ca/letters-conservatives-are-telling-tall-tales-on-carbon-tax/
Trump has shown PCs in Canada that blatant lies hardly affect polling numbers at all.
Search “What Pierre Poilievre and Donald Trump have in common”
“we now have a Canadian Conservative leader who trades in the same trademark combination of bombast, belligerence, and bs.”
Provincially Ontario used to be 96% non-fossil fuel power and rising.
Something to be proud of.
It would have only taken a small amount of renewable energy and storage to get up to 100%.
Until Ford cancelled 750 green projects already under construction and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars doing it.
Due to Ford’s meddling we are down to 90% non-fossil fuel power and dropping fast.
Unlike the rest of the world.
Something to be embarrassed about.
Ford needs to sort out his priorities.
$1.1 billion cost/loss in revenue with licence plate sticker renewals.
$500 million of public money for a parking garage for a private spa.
“Doug Ford’s change to booze sales could cost far more than $225M”
Not a dime for minor roof repairs at the Science Centre which has inspired kids to go into STEM for decades.
It’s absurd that it’s closed.
“Closure for safety” is a blatant lie according to engineers and architects.
400 other public buildings, including schools, with the same kind of roof are repaired while they remain open.
The roofs over exhibit areas are not a problem at all and the Cinesphere has a totally different kind of roof.
All closed for no reason at all.
Search “Hundreds of buildings with Science Centre roof panels remain open
Some 400 public buildings have the same material, but Ontario Science Centre only one closed”
“Architecture firm behind Ontario Science Centre slams closure”
“It’s absurd to think that the whole building needs to be immediately shut down,” Rudy told The Canadian Press. “It’s so obviously a political move.”
Ford is flailing again like Kermit the Frog.
“announce something contentious that people hate, spend some time flailing in your attempt to justify it, then eventually back down.”
Search ” The Science Centre debate isn’t about engineering — it’s about politics”
What is with Ford’s obsession with booze?
Clearly drunks are his base.
They have never been inside the Science Centre either.
Like Doug.
The displays would baffle him.
Ford has no use for science for facts or truth or engineers or architects.
“Cost of Ontario Science Centre temporary location exceeds cost of roof repairs”
Roof repairs?
Ford’s inflated number $22-40 million.
Temporary Science Centre for a few years 1/10 the size?
$72 million!!
Make sense only to drunks. And Doug.
“The true cost of repairing the Ontario Science Centre is much, much less than what Infrastructure Ontario has been saying—and the proof is in its own documents”
Watch the video: Original architects say Science Centre didn’t have to close.
Rob Adams says
I’m of the opinion that, as a result of the pandemic, our trust in science, along with our trust in government took a massive hit.
We were told that the covid vaccine was both safe and effective. Neither was true. Vaccine injuries from the covid vaccine are more than all other vaccines put together. And, if it were effective we would not need the on-going boosters every few months.
We were told that the travel bans and lock-downs were supported by science. It turns out there was no scientific basis for either, other than political science.
The article mentions how the covid vaccine has led to advances in science that will be used for future vaccines and medical treatment. It fails to mention that the covid vaccine trials have still not been completed. It also fails to mention that the mRNA technology used in the covid vaccine, and now being used in new vaccines, has never worked successfully. Prior to covid, it had been tried in SARS and MERS vaccines but failed miserably. It still hasn’t been tested successfully.
It mentions how transgender people are being refused medical care in the States, but fails to mention that here in Canada unvaccinated people were refused transplants.
It fails to mention the failed vaccine initiative by the Gates Foundation in India that caused more polio from the vaccine than it cured. The scientific and political communities allowed this, with no repercussions, despite Gates being neither a scientist or a doctor. He is of course one of the biggest contributors to the WHO, the unelected body that desperately wants to take control of our health through the farcical pandemic treaty.
And, of course, being the Doppler, no commentary would be complete without the customary dig at the Republican party.
Bob Braan says
Luckily unscientific anti-vaxxers are in the very small minority.
The Covid vaccines are safe and spectacularly effective at preventing millions dying from Covid and saving health care and the economy, billions of dollars in lockdowns and income supports.
More effective than many other vaccines that have been around for decades.
Preventing death and the spread of Covid in others and billions in extra health care costs, is not a choice you can opt out of.
It’s a public responsibility.
The vaccines were also produced in record time which is very impressive.
Paxlovid also prevents millions from entering hospitals with Covid.
It works even for the anti-vaxxers.
Unless they are afraid to take some pills like they are afraid of life saving needles.
Anti-vaxxers don’t want to put a safe and effective vaccine in their body but horse dewormer from a farm store is fine.
Makes sense only to the illogical and unscientific.
“N.S. livestock feed store owner warns customers that horse drug won’t treat COVID-19″”Feed stores across Canada have been receiving a deluge of callers asking to buy ivermectin due to misinformation that suggests the livestock dewormer can be used to treat COVID-19 in humans.”
People who had been waiting months for other life saving treatments in hospitals were displaced and their treatments delayed needlessly by unscientific anti-vaxxers taking up hospital beds for weeks.
Some of those displaced died waiting.
Unscientific anti-vaxxers extended the pandemic and cost the economy billions.
They need to smarten up and follow their public responsibility like most Canadians.
Luckily unscientific anti-vaxxers are in the very small minority.