The more I learn, the more astounded I become by how much we learned before the age of 14 in that little two roomed primary school in Johnstown.
One lesson I remember from the English book, was the story of scientist Madam Curie and how she discovered radium. We also knew stuff like how Scotsman Jamie Watt invented the steam engine after watching the lid of a boiling kettle move up and down at his granny’s house. If my class was asked who invented the telephone, or penicillin, at least half of the hands would go up – even if some of us got mixed up in the Alexanders sometime!
Sticking with science and inventions; smallpox – which killed hundreds of millions of people has been eradicated: TB and polio – the national scourge of my youth have all been prevented or cured. Leprosy was eliminated by a vaccine discovered by a Mr Garcia. (An easy name to remember!)
Keep all those incredible advances in your mind for a moment – because we are going somewhere else with this …
This year’s Nobel Prize in medicine was won by Katlin Kariko and Drew Wiseman, because they too have saved millions of lives through being the scientists who worked around the clock to discover an effective vaccine to combat Covid 19. But did a grateful society drop to its knees to give thanks for this breakthrough in medical science? Read on please …
Let’s say for the sake of argument, that all of the above inventions are of equal value to mankind, why then is the last one not universally applauded like the others? The reason, dear readers, is because the world has gone a bit mad … and unfortunately, no vaccine has of yet been discovered to deal with this latest form of madness. The message being broadcast from the mad side of things; the relentless conspiracy theorists, is that there never was a Covid disease and that the vaccine is one more monumental scam promoted by the pharmaceutical industry.
In the United State, Robert Kennedy Jnr, has sullied a once proud name, through seeking the Democrat Party nomination, with the message of the far right conspiracy theorists. Fortunately, Kennedy has not succeeded in getting on the party ballot paper, so he is now going to run as an independent. His own family have labelled him a ‘crank’ and warned against the threat he poses to democracy. But its science and medical advances we are talking about here, I hear you holler. Yes, Robert Kennedy Jnr, insists that all inoculations of children should be stopped! He is an anti-vaxxer, who has claimed that Wi-Fi causes cancer and that Covid-19 might be a bioweapon designed to target people other than Jews and Chinese!
Stop whatever you are doing for a minute: Robert Kennedy Jnr is a former environmental lawyer and obviously a ‘brainy’ man. How in the name of God, can the most advanced country in the world, have such a presidential electoral system that it produces candidates of the calibre we see up there trying to fill the most important post in the world? It defies science …
The conspiracy theorists have broken down the sacred door into medical science. To recap; this humble scribe left school at 15 and doesn’t know too much about anything – especially of a scientific nature – but I don’t need to know: All I need is to know a man or woman who knows! But the more reliant that people are on advanced scientific discoveries, it seems that there is a lessening of faith in scientists. Think of the criticisms directed at Dr Houlihan and Dr Fauci who worked tirelessly to keep people alive. This year’s Nobel winners have been called, ‘agents of the Big Pharma.’
We live in a pessimistic age, where 70 per cent of misinformation is spread on Twitter and believed a lot quicker than the ‘Our Father.’ We all know people who cannot discuss any topic without offering a way-out theory and a negative response to every mainstream news story. If Garcia only discovered a cure for polio today, the conspiracy theorists might likely accuse him of setting out to maintain a body of cheap labour for the rich!
So is science under threat? I have been waiting a long time to tell you about one man’s take on science – and how he got it wrong!
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Vincent Hogan for an evening a few years ago. I was always a fan, and in the course of conversation, I relayed to Vincent my favourite line that he ever wrote.
Hogan wrote of meeting a man on O’Connell St, on the eve of the 2000 All-Ireland Hurling Semi-final, between Offaly and Cork. “How do you see this one going? asked Vincent. “All I can say”, replied his knowledgeable friend, is that “If Offaly wins this one, science is fu**ed!”
Anyway, despite underdogs Offaly winning that match, science survived! Hopefully it will survives the conspiracy theorists as well …
Don’t Forget
Science is only a tool. The harm or good it does depends on how men use it.
