Perspectives in Primary Care: Disseminating Scientific Findings in an Era of Fake News and Science Denial

Science and research findings have become a battleground on which to influence the opinions and beliefs of the general public. We are in an era where authority figures will manipulate and discount information being released to the public that doesn’t fit their worldview or support their plan of action. We hear constant claims of “fake news” for positions with evidence while simultaneously hearing support for policy positions that clearly have no scientific evidence. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed scientists from panel discussions on climate science so that the scientists were unable to publicly present their findings.1 Further, although evidence indicates that childhood immunizations are not associated with autism, the persistent belief in the harmfulness of childhood immunizations and the corresponding information disseminated by anti-vaccine groups has led to low vaccine rates and measles outbreaks in places like the Somali community in Minnesota.2-