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Can You Trust Science Too Much?

2021-07-30 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:48 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Health, Science & nature) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook

Hank argues you can trust science too much, since treating its findings as gospel is unscientific, but that alternatives escape science's harsh constraints and are judged by laxer rules; using ivermectin for COVID as the example, he says science is not facts or an ideology but a human system very good at uncovering truth.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Too much faith in science is unscientific; alternatives judged by different rules

  • ★★★ Hank, who loves being a science guy, says one can have too much faith in existing scientific knowledge: treating it as gospel is deeply unscientific. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ We don't know most things; what we do know we know pretty well, and while some of it might turn out a little wrong, being all the way wrong is pretty unlikely. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Many times in history doctors told people they had no disease when the disease was simply unknown, and this still happens in doctor's offices now. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Faced with science's fallibility, many seek alternatives outside its constraints, which often just claim things that fit people's perspectives and emotions rather than reality. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ We should watch for different rules applied to different systems: we are more frustrated when science is wrong because society rightly heralds its accuracy and gives it much power. — 00:00:58
  • ★ Hank says alternatives being wrong is shrugged off like AFC Wimbledon losing: that happens. (joke) — 00:00:58 · AFC Wimbledon

00:01:35 — Ivermectin for COVID: meta-analysis, a new trial in England, the FDA, cable news and misunderstanding

  • ★★★ Science imposes specific, harsh constraints; alternatives can claim whatever, so they are not always wrong but much more likely to be, while science's constraints make information more likely true. — 00:01:35
  • ★★★ Ivermectin is not an effective treatment for COVID. — 00:01:35 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★★ A recent meta-analysis of ivermectin finds that among randomized controlled trials most show no effect, some positive and some negative effects. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ A big, well-designed ivermectin study is under way in England; it is worth running because several non-randomized, non-placebo-controlled observational trials showed strong positive effects. — 00:02:04 · England
  • ★★ The FDA can't suggest that doctors prescribe ivermectin for COVID because, within the constraints of science, there is no evidence it works. — 00:02:04 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Anyone can go on cable news and claim the FDA is holding ivermectin back, free of science's constraints; being wrong on cable news isn't illegal and seems encouraged. (playful) — 00:02:33
  • ★★★ Turning the FDA's 'not effective' into 'ivermectin is bad and dangerous' is not over-trusting science but misunderstanding it. — 00:02:33

00:03:02 — Do the research properly; science is a system for uncovering truth, not facts or ideology

  • ★★ Hank urges doing the research properly and carefully, and meanwhile keeping people from taking their dog's heartworm medication. — 00:03:02
  • ★★ Unmethodical research risks trusting data later shown false, as with the most widely publicized paper showing ivermectin's efficacy, recently retracted. — 00:03:02
  • ★★★ Science is not always right and would stop progressing if all thought it was; it is not a set of facts or an ideology but a human system very good at uncovering truth. — 00:03:31

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank is disheartened by how effectively setting science beside systems with different rules has led people to abandon expertise for some guy with opinions. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank is also frustrated by people who treat science as an ideology, attacking anyone who challenges the current consensus as anti-science or a political opponent. — video description
  • ★★ The description notes there are many randomized controlled trials for several vaccines, so people should get them, while research into antivirals and treatments continues. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: ivermectin · scientific consensus · scientific method

Also: AFC Wimbledon · Cable news · COVID-19 pandemic · England · Food and Drug Administration · meta-analysis · observational study · randomized controlled trial

Also centred on scientific consensus: Trust and Fire - Thoughts from the Smoke · This Might Actually be Happening

Also centred on scientific method: I Love Science (Clean Version) (Uncensored link in the Description)

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