PaulT @P3f@social.cleverlibre.org

For Kennedy's story to be even plausible, the NIAID would have to be paying off literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of people — and paying them so much that not a one of them would choose to break ranks and provide the world with credible evidence of the vaccine harms that Kennedy proclaims are omnipresent.

Kennedy's story is a common conspiracist trope, in which some higher authority orchestrates a massive worldwide coverup of publicly beneficial information. With an understanding of the scale of the scientific endeavor, such tales become laughable. Think about what it takes to buy silence. If everyone in the community knows what is happening or can find out, everyone in the community has to be getting paid off, or hoping that they will be soon.

Third, the story that Kennedy is trying to spin ignores the huge incentives —both in terms of prestige and financial reward (2) — that researchers have to demonstrate that conventional wisdom is incorrect. Fourth, even in the absence of career and monetary incentives, the story supposes that not a single person out of tens of thousands would choose to follow conscience over profit.

First of all, as NIAID director, Fauci has little if any involvement in individual funding decisions. Second, while NIAID does fund some work conducted internationally, scientists overseas are far from reliant on NIAID/NIH funding. (Even virologists in the US are not entirely reliant on NIAID/NIH funding.)

Here, Kennedy is claiming that Fauci used grant funding to obtain worldwide omertà — silence purchased by the Mafia — with regard to vaccine harms. Set aside the immediate errors about Fauci's position and available budget (1). The notion that the head of a granting agency — even a large granting agency — could somehow purchase worldwide silence is absurd.

Today, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the longest-standing and highest-profile activists in the antivax movement, tweeted a blatant lie. Nothing newsworthy there. The newsworthy part is that Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk—yes, the supposed scientific visionary—affirmed and amplified Kennedy's message. The two men's posts are below.

With even a rudimentary understanding of how science works as a social institution, it is obvious that Kennedy is lying yet again. But in the classroom, we don't teach how science works as a social institution. It's time to fix that.

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Science education in an age of twitter disinformation

tl;dr — Science education needs to adapt to a world of misinformation on social media and beyond. Today, prominent antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted the ridiculous claim that as director of the NIAID, Dr. Fauci bought the silence of the entire worldwide virology community by handing out research grants. Elon Musk then affirmed and amplified his claim.

Alternatively, if you prefer to read it here, I'm posting here as well by request. I have mixed feelings about cross-posting like this, but people have asked — and I sure understand the rationale for not wanting to use post.news. I've written about it myself.

So, anyway, here you go.