Recently,  I've been thinking about science in society :  Is it pervasive? Is it largely misunderstood? Are people dispensing science and medical  information when they're not equipped to do so?  Is it confusing out there for someone who is looking for good information?

 I think the answer to all four of these questions is: Yes.

 Two things lately have raised red flags for me, in relation to these thoughts.  The first is Bill Maher's ignorant claims about vaccinations, and the second is a viewing of Under the Eightball, a documentary about Lyme disease and bioterrorism, which I attended last night in Cambridge.  

 In both cases, emotion, politics and idealogy (and in both cases, a healthy dose of conspiracy theory) have clouded bias-free information and facts, and have prevented a logical assessment of these information and facts.  

 Bill Maher (a clip of his interview with Dr. Bill Frist can be found on You Tube, his recent twitter post was: If u get a swine flu shot ur an idiot.), in going against the CDC, the NIH, leading scientists and doctors, and over 200 years of successful vaccinations and eradication of many diseases, sounds like the type of lunatics he regularly mocks in his stand-up routines.   Would there really be a vast conspiracy among these esteemed professionals to cover up data showing vaccines are harmful, or that the side-effects outweigh the health protections?  It just doesn't make sense. 

Doctors and researchers (I would frame this as at least 99.9% of them) are ethical and constantly weeding through data to find the most accurate and up-to date information.  If someone had made a concrete link between vaccinations and any ill-effects (or indeed, a link suggesting vaccinations are not effective), the scientific community would immediately consider this - and they would communicate this to the public too.  That's the way science works - the best ideas float to the top, and the people with the best ideas are eager to share these findings.

 Most worrisome, is that some people are not sure who to believe - as an entertainer with a public platform, Maher may make convincing arguments to some, and doctors or scientists may be quieter or less eloquent.  However, the proof lies in the statistics.  This CDC website links to a list of the diseases currently preventable by childhood vaccinations (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/child-vpd.htm) , and the Journal of the American Medical Association (one of the top medical journals in the world;  Roush et al, 2007, Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States) provides a meta-analysis showing an overall decreasing trend for ten diseases, since vaccinations for them began.

 However, rates of polio for example (erradicated in 1968), could be on the rise due to scare-tactics preventing  vaccinations.  It seems so simple to make a smart health decision and have your children vaccinated for childhood diseases, and yourself vaccinated for the seasonal flu. 

Most of these findings are from government funded research.  And if you're a conspiracy theorist, that alone may garner your distrust.  Add on top of that the availability of 'information' on the web to support any side of any argument, enabling people coming from uninformed angles, and the water is inevitably muddied. 

Vaccines, including the seasonal flu vaccine, ARE effective. No trustworthy doctor or scientist would tell you otherwise.   Each year they are created based on which viruses are most likely to be infecting people - and yes, this does create profit for pharmaceutical companies.  But correlation between profit and a medical device, does not deem that medical device ineffective.

 During the time of the cholera epidemic, people believed Miasmas - or bad air - carried disease (and that bad smells would make you sick).  This was before the germ-theory of disease, the indisputable evidence that bacteria and viruses make us sick, not foul odors.  Parallels can be drawn between this period of history and the current debate over vaccinations - but by arming yourself with trustworthy information you can find yourself on the right side of history - and healthier to boot.

 More on Under the Eightball, next time!