The harms of promoting the lab leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 origins without evidence.

Science is humanity's best insurance against threats from nature, but it is a fragile enterprise that must be nourished and protected. The preponderance of scientific evidence indicates a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2. Yet, the theory that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in and escaped from a lab dominates media attention, even in the absence of strong evidence. We discuss how the resulting anti-science movement puts the research community, scientific research, and pandemic preparedness at risk.

Why are people antiscience, and what can we do about it?

From vaccination refusal to climate change denial, antiscience views are threatening humanity. When different individuals are provided with the same piece of scientific evidence, why do some accept whereas others dismiss it? Building on various emerging data and models that have explored the psychology of being antiscience, we specify four core bases of key principles driving antiscience attitudes. These principles are grounded in decades of research on attitudes, persuasion, social influence, social identity, and information processing. They apply across diverse domains of antiscience phenomena. Specifically, antiscience attitudes are more likely to emerge when a scientific message comes from sources perceived as lacking credibility; when the recipients embrace the social membership or identity of groups with antiscience attitudes; when the scientific message itself contradicts what recipients consider true, favorable, valuable, or moral; or when there is a mismatch between the delivery of the scientific message and the epistemic style of the recipient. Politics triggers or amplifies many principles across all four bases, making it a particularly potent force in antiscience attitudes. Guided by the key principles, we describe evidence-based counteractive strategies for increasing public acceptance of science.

Vaccine Preventable Disease and Vaccine Hesitancy.

Global immunization programs have saved tens of millions of lives over the last 2 decades. Now, the recent successes of COVID-19 vaccines having saved more than 3 million lives in North America during the pandemic may open the door to accelerate technologies for other emerging infection vaccines. New vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, norovirus, influenza, herpes simplex virus, shingles, dengue fever, enteric bacterial infections, malaria, and Chagas disease are advancing through clinical development and could become ready for delivery over the next 5 years. The successful delivery of these new vaccines may require expanded advocacy and communications efforts.

Recognizing and Responding to Anti-Science in Environmental and Public Health Research and Practice.

This perspectives article considers the challenges posed by anti-science and how we can use research to respond more effectively. In public health, the challenges were more visible and the impact more serious during the COVID-19 pandemic. In part, this was due to a more organized anti-science and effective use of narrative methods. Regarding climate change, the role of anti-science represents a critical issue, but perhaps more recognized in environmental research and practice. The article draws on a narrative review to show some of the research into the nature of anti-science and the challenges it poses. It proposes that, as researchers, practitioners, and educationalists, we can be more effective if we make more use of recent research in the sciences of communications, behavior, and implementation, and shows some of the resources we can use to help our work be more relevant in the new era in which we are living.

The Importance of Fostering and Funding Scientific Research, and its Relevance to Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

What do environmental contaminants and climate change have in common with the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease COVID-19? We argue that one common element is the wealth of basic and applied scientific research that provides the knowledge and tools essential in developing effective programs for addressing threats to humans and social-ecological systems. Research on various chemicals, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, resulted in regulatory action to protect environmental and human health. Moreover, decades of research on coronaviruses, mRNA, and recently SARS-CoV-2 enabled the rapid development of vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In the present study, we explore the common elements of basic and applied scientific research breakthroughs that link chemicals, climate change, and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 and describe how scientific information was applied for protecting human health and, more broadly, socio-ecological systems. We also offer a cautionary note on the misuse and mistrust of science that is not new in human history, but unfortunately is surging in modern times. Our goal was to illustrate the critical role of scientific research to society, and we argue that research must be intentionally fostered, better funded, and applied appropriately. To that end, we offer evidence that supports the importance of investing in scientific research and, where needed, ways to counter the spread of misinformation and disinformation that undermines legitimate discourse. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:581-593. © 2022 SETAC.

Implementation Methods and Research for a Post-truth World with Growing Inequities.

The purpose of this article is to consider the changing context for implementation research and practice and new approaches which might now be more relevant for some implementation objectives. Factors that hindered implementation of evidence-based practices before the COVID-19 pandemic was an anti-science culture, strengthened by different media and appeals to emotion and identity. The article questions how effective are the rational-cognitive and individual models of change that frequency informs our research and practice. It describes challenges we face and considers methods we could use that might be more effective, including research-informed narrative methods, participatory research and practice, especially with culturally and linguistically diverse peoples, and adaptive implementation.

Anti-Vaccine Discourse on Social Media: An Exploratory Audit of Negative Tweets about Vaccines and Their Posters.

As the anti-vaccination movement is spreading around the world, this paper addresses the ever more urgent need for health professionals, communicators and policy-makers to grasp the nature of vaccine mis/disinformation on social media. A one-by-one coding of 4511 vaccine-related tweets posted from the UK in 2019 resulted in 334 anti-vaccine tweets. Our analysis shows that (a) anti-vaccine tweeters are quite active and widely networked users on their own; (b) anti-vaccine messages tend to focus on the "harmful" nature of vaccination, based mostly on personal experience, values and beliefs rather than hard facts; (c) anonymity does not make a difference to the types of posted anti-vaccine content, but does so in terms of the volume of such content. Communication initiatives against anti-vaccination should (a) work closely with technological platforms to tackle anonymous anti-vaccine tweets; (b) focus efforts on mis/disinformation in three major arears (in order of importance): the medical nature of vaccines, the belief that vaccination is a tool of manipulation and control for money and power, and the "freedom of health choice" discourse against mandatory vaccination; and (c) go beyond common factual measures-such as detecting, labelling or removing fake news-to address emotions induced by personal memories, values and beliefs.

Stakes of Knowing the Truth: A Motivational Perspective on the Popularity of a Controversial Scientific Theory.

The aim of this article is to provide a different perspective on people's beliefs regarding controversial scientific information. We emphasize that, although people generally aim at getting a fair representation of reality, accuracy about scientific issues only matters to the extent that individuals perceive it as useful to achieve their own goals. This has important consequences in terms of how anti-science attitudes as well as epistemically questionable beliefs must be interpreted, which has consequences for addressing misinformation. We argue that most people who endorse scientific misinformation are not truly interested in its accuracy, and rather that plausibility at face value often suffices when it is meant to be used for social purposes only. We illustrate this view with the example of hydroxychloroquine, which was considered as potential treatment for Covid-19, and which has been the subject of much media hype and public concern, particularly in France.

Preventing the next pandemic and tackling antiscience: an interview with Peter Hotez.

This interview was conducted by Atiya Henry, Commissioning Editor of Future Microbiology. Peter J Hotez, MD, PhD is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. As head of the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development, he leads a team and product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and SARS/MERS/SARS-2 coronavirus. Dr Hotez has authored more than 500 original papers and is the author of four single-author books. Most recently as both a vaccine scientist and autism parent, he has led national efforts to defend vaccines and to serve as an ardent champion of vaccines going up against a growing national 'antivax' threat.

Anti-science extremism in America: escalating and globalizing.

The last five years has seen a sharp rise in anti-science rhetoric in the United States, especially from the political far right, mostly focused on vaccines and, of late, anti-COVID-19 prevention approaches. Vaccine coverage has declined in more than 100 US counties leading to measles outbreaks in 2019, while in 2020 the US became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the anti-science movement in America has begun to globalize, with new and unexpected associations with extremist groups and the potential for tragic consequences in terms of global public health. A new anti-science triumvirate has emerged, comprised of far right groups in the US and Germany, and amplified by Russian media.

Not All Skepticism Is Equal: Exploring the Ideological Antecedents of Science Acceptance and Rejection.

Many topics that scientists investigate speak to people's ideological worldviews. We report three studies-including an analysis of large-scale survey data-in which we systematically investigate the ideological antecedents of general faith in science and willingness to support science, as well as of science skepticism of climate change, vaccination, and genetic modification (GM). The main predictors are religiosity and political orientation, morality, and science understanding. Overall, science understanding is associated with vaccine and GM food acceptance, but not climate change acceptance. Importantly, different ideological predictors are related to the acceptance of different scientific findings. Political conservatism best predicts climate change skepticism. Religiosity, alongside moral purity concerns, best predicts vaccination skepticism. GM food skepticism is not fueled by religious or political ideology. Finally, religious conservatives consistently display a low faith in science and an unwillingness to support science. Thus, science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, depending on the topic of investigation.