Science in Peril

Today is the 40th anniversary of the convening of a panel of scientists that declared the smallpox virus to be eradicated, the only disease ever to be driven to extinction through human efforts.

Perhaps this is a good opportunity to remind us of the vaxxer (or “anti-vaxxer”) phenomenon, which joins the flat Earth people and the climate change deniers in a growing trend to ignore science and re-root our belief system in rumor and superstition.

Vaxxers are identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019. The term encompasses outright refusal to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others. Arguments against vaccination are contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

If this were something cute or quaint or funny, with no real damaging effects on our civilization, no one would care.  As suggested in the graph here, however, that’s anything but the case.