How denialist amplification spread COVID misinformation and undermined the credibility of public health science.

Denialist scientists played an outsized role in shaping public opinion and determining public health policy during the recent COVID pandemic. From early on, amplification of researchers who denied the threat of COVID shaped public opinion and undermined public health policy. The forces that amplify denialists include (1) Motivated amplifiers seeking to protect their own interests by supporting denialist scientists, (2) Conventional media outlets giving disproportionate time to denialist opinions, (3) Promoters of controversy seeking to gain traction in an 'attention economy,' and (4) Social media creating information silos in which denialists can become the dominant voice. Denialist amplification poses an existential threat to science relevant to public policy. It is incumbent on the scientific community to create a forum to accurately capture the collective perspective of the scientific community related to public health policy that is open to dissenting voices but prevents artificial amplification of denialists.

The two trillion dollar barn: science, prevention, and the lessons of disaster.

The unprecedented scale of the CovID-19 disaster will define public health failure for generations to come. Its causes include inadequate funding, hostility towards science in general and public health science in particular, a government culture steeped in deception and misinformation, and a disdain for collaboration for the greater good among the community of nations. The consequences have been devastating, but it is essential that the public health community uses its moment in the spotlight to promote the agenda of science-based policy, honesty and transparency in communication, and international cooperation to advance the common good of humanity.

The elderly and waterborne Cryptosporidium infection: gastroenteritis hospitalizations before and during the 1993 Milwaukee outbreak.

We used the Temporal Exposure Response Surfaces modeling technique to examine the association between gastroenteritis-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations in the elderly and drinking water turbidity before and during the 1993 Milwaukee waterborne Cryptosporidium outbreak. Before the outbreak, the rate of such events increased with age in the elderly (p

Serum dioxin and psychological functioning in U.S. Air Force veterans of the Vietnam War.

Using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, we assessed the psychological functioning of U.S. Air Force veterans exposed to Agent Orange and its contaminant, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlodibenzo-p-dioxin (dioxin), during the Vietnam War. Index subjects were veterans of Operation Ranch Hand (N = 1,109). Comparisons (N = 1,493) were U.S. Air Force veterans not involved with spraying herbicides. We found few consistent psychological abnormalities associated with serum dioxin levels. Ranch Hand veterans with higher dioxin levels showed some difficulties in anxiety, somatization, depression, and a denial of psychological factors. However, those with background levels also showed indications of emotional distress, primarily in emotional numbing and lability; a guarded, suspicious, and withdrawn style of relating to others; and unusual thoughts or behaviors.

Environmental health surveillance: indicators for freshwater ecosystems.

The relationship between the health of human populations and the state of the ecosystems in which they live is profoundly complex. As most environmental indicators relevant to human health depend on evidence of a direct cause and effect relationship, there are few indicators of the less direct consequences of environmental degradation on human health. Indicators of the direct consequence of contaminants in freshwater ecosystems on human health are highlighted in this paper and candidate indicators for environmental health are provided. Many of the indicators included here are from the State Of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) program. SOLEC conferences in the past (1994 and 1996) examined the state of various components of the ecosystem through the use of ad hoc indicators, and provided subjective assessments of certain environmental conditions. At SOLEC 98, a comprehensive suite of 80 Great Lakes ecosystem health indicators was presented for review, refinement and acceptance. Candidate indicators for freshwater systems and environmental health presented here are organized following the "Pressure-State-Response" framework and cover the areas of drinking water, recreational water, freshwater food sources, and the availability of freshwater for economic activities.