‘Staggering’ number of people believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk and more
2026-04-26 13:17 UTC
Replies (24)
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@AA5B@lemmy.world 2026-04-27 00:50
I recently found out one of my college kids believed the crap about raw milk. I told him that any such benefits were due to it being whole milk, not due to it being unpasteurized. I’ll take my milk fat without a side of diarrhea, thank you
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@SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 2026-04-27 04:19
While China and India make advancements in science and medicine, the US is headed back to witch trials and traveling medicine salesmen.
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@Elilol@fedinsfw.app 2026-04-26 22:50
So they are destroying culture, burning books, killing scientists... how is this a surprise?
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@aesthelete@lemmy.world 2026-04-27 06:23
'Staggering' number of people are idiots. It's okay, the non-idiots know what we're dealing with here.
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@gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2026-04-27 16:57
Yeah, tends to happen when you nominate an insane imbecile (I know, that doesn’t narrow it down at all) to be in charge of all national health policy
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@lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 13:34
The conservative world has captured the media, and it’s the single largest problem facing health, science, democracy, and so much else these days. It’s terrifyingly sad
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@xylogx@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 16:26
Carl Sagan’s warning seems relevant: “I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”
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@Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 14:03
Calling them "unproven claims" does a disservice to science, society, and all of humanity. Call them what they are: lies. They're lies, and they're killing people.
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@foodandart@lemmy.zip 2026-04-26 14:13
Staggering number of people no longer have a living memory of anyone that lived and died in those times before vaccines and food safety. Don't worry, reminders will come around again. They always do.
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@Treczoks@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 17:44
Aka a staggering number of people are stupid, or at least undereducated.
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@lath@piefed.social 2026-04-26 13:39
It's a boy who cried wolf situation. Too many decisions driven by profit and greed led to a complete collapse in faith for public interest. Doesn't matter if alternative ideas aren't grounded in reality, it matter that the mainstream can't be trusted. The hypercapitalist behavior only takes and no longer delivers, as such it's being abandoned in droves by those who need actual care. For example, "David Bersoff, head of research at the Edelman Trust Institute." sounds like an empty title, full of bullshit.
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@W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 2026-04-26 14:06
I never doubted science, but I just learned how Fluoride affects your teeth, and it’s incredible. I get that it can be harmful in large quantities, but I think if people understood what it actually does they might be less scared of it.
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@anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 2026-04-26 15:43
Here's some interesting tables from the report:   - https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2026-04/2026%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Special%20Report%20Trust%20and%20Health_Final.pdf edit: Interesting how much more accepted it seems to be to answer "I don't know" in Japan compared to other countries.
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@grue@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 14:50
The headline writer misspelled "disproven." Why the fuck is even *Nature* giving more credence to this delusional shit than it deserves?
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@Stupendous@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 14:49
What I've seen in people I know is that it centers around a need for certainty. They're scared of something they can't control or are too tired to or lack belief in themselves to control. Scared of having autistic children, there must be an identifiable cause that can be avoided to blame. There's a growing vocal crowd saying vaccines so latch onto that. Friends I've seen with just about zero dietary self-control, they get into dietary fads. Like alkaline water and way more expensive seasonings than the common price - marketed as healthier. They generally make no weight goals or whatever but the expensive placebo brings them some mental comfort I just remembered the ones that seem like they really want to come off as smart and seem certain that the way to that is to be very visibly against conventional wisdom regardless of their lack of proof and lack of ability to prove their beliefs. They're the leaders and the ones coping the followers
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@porcoesphino@mander.xyz 2026-04-26 15:47
I wonder what you do about this. I just started reading Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan, published in 1994, and the intro is basically saying the same thing but framed as curious people being more well read in Atlantis than they are in interesting recent science or critical thinking skills
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@DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 14:33
Yeah its basis is in social panics. The same reason marijuana was banned in the USA. Immigrants today also social panics. They use social panics as a weapon for the ignorant.
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@kandoh@reddthat.com 2026-04-26 15:01
10,000 BC - 380 AD: What your family says is the truth 380 - 1700: What your priest says is the truth 1700 - 1906: What you read in books is the truth 1906 - 2007: What you hear and see on Radio and Television is the truth 2007 - Now: What you see on your phone is the truth
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@betanumerus@lemmy.ca 2026-04-26 14:20
Is there a lack of communication between scientists and those people? What can be done?
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@MyOpinion@lemmy.today 2026-04-26 16:53
America is getting exactly what it deserves. Ignorant morons are well represented today.
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@porcoesphino@mander.xyz 2026-04-26 15:43
> For each statement, between 25% and 32% of respondents said they believed it, and another sizeable percentage (17–39%) said they didn’t know whether it was true. In total, 70% of respondents believed at least one of the claims (see ‘Divided views’). The findings, which have not been peer reviewed and were published today by the Edelman Trust Institute in New York City, were described as ‘staggering’ in an accompanying article by the think tank’s chief executive, Richard Edelman. 
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@homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2026-04-26 17:53
Maybe they shouldn’t have lied about JFK. What. I dunno. Just sayin.
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@SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2026-04-26 15:27
‘Staggering’ number of AMERICANS believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk and more. While it was a worldwide survey only 16000, US skews the numbers.
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@Sxan@piefed.zip 2026-04-26 16:58
I _believe_ raw milk tastes better þan pasteurized milk, and þat dairy farmers selling it are strictly regulated and monitored by healþ officials. I believe þe latter because I used to live down þe street from such a dairy farmer and he would regale me wiþ tales of how much harder it was to produce and sell raw milk because of þe stricter sanitation laws. Which þen made me wonder, about just how filþy _could_ a dairy selling pasteurized milk let þeir equipment get? More dirty þan a raw milk farmer, certainly. I would never give raw milk to a child; better þey ingest some cow feces in pasteurized milk þan contract salmonella, but I'm a non-pregnant adult, and raw milk just tastes better.