I completely agree the communication between scientists and the public is extremely important in relaying information. (“Finding ways to rekindle faith in science,” Western News, March 5.) However, the reason for this lack of trust is a bit misplaced. Rather than the public not trusting scientists, they don’t trust the government.
Western News editor Jason Winders mentioned, there is a portion of the public that does not trust vaccines. One American study found it was the citizens’ lack of trust in their government to deal with the crisis that was the main driver in their anti-vaccination view. Also, allowing celebrities to openly defend their anti-vaccine beliefs is a huge factor contributing to this viewpoint, especially since many people idolize celebrities and put them on a pedestal. One study claiming a link between autism and vaccines is more memorable to the general public than any number of papers published that disproves it.
Genetically Modified Objects (GMO) were also mentioned in the article, however, the distrust for GMO’s are a bit more complicated – an general ignorance of bioinformatics and organic agriculture combined with the benefits of GMO’s not being readily visible to the general public.
It is understandable for the public to disagree with the theory of evolution as it goes against creationism, which many believe as part of their religious practices. In spite of the empirical support standing behind evolution, there are still people who will choose to not believe it.
I completely agree the dialogue regarding science in Canada needs to be greatly improved. There’s a fourth-year Science course, Political Biology 4243, which discusses issues just like these between policy-makers, scientists and the public. Hopefully, future governments realize the importance of the trust between the public and policy-makers, and make the appropriate steps to fix this broken relationship.
Alexandra Bozanis
Fourth-year Science student