Authors of 'Science Under Siege' Detail War on Science

The Antiscience Superstorm

• 🌪️ The authors describe an antiscience superstorm fueled by a coordinated effort from global actors including billionaires, national leaders, and credentialed experts.
• 🎯 This campaign aims to confuse and mislead the public on critical scientific principles, particularly concerning climate change and pandemic threats.

Personal Experiences with Attacks

• 📈 Michael Mann recounts facing intense backlash and personal attacks starting in the late 1990s after publishing the hockey stick curve, which highlighted unprecedented warming and implicated human activity.
• 💉 Peter Hotez shares his experience becoming a target of anti-vaccine groups after speaking out against false claims linking vaccines to autism, an issue personal to him due to his daughter.
• 🤝 The shared experience of being attacked led Mann and Hotez to collaborate on their book, recognizing similar tactics and players involved in both climate and public health science denial.

The "P" Forces Attacking Science

• 💰 Plutocrats are identified as funders of dark money organizations that attack climate science and have influenced anti-vaccine movements.
• ⛽ Petrostates, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, and currently the US, are motivated to block a clean energy transition due to fossil fuel interests.
• 📢 Propagandists and conservative media outlets, such as Rupert Murdoch's empire, actively promote anti-science narratives.
• 📰 Press outlets, including legacy media, sometimes fall victim to "performative neutrality," giving undue weight to anti-science viewpoints.

Motivations and Tactics

• 💸 The attacks are described as deliberate, politically motivated, and financially driven, rather than random misinformation.
• 🌐 The aggressive health and wellness influencer industry can also be a source of anti-science, as it may be detrimental to their business models if they promote established scientific consensus.
• 🎭 Scientists are often portrayed as cartoon villains or public enemies to discredit their work and warnings.

Fighting Back

• 🗣️ The authors argue that scientists must speak out more overtly and demand that policy discussions be based on objective scientific understanding.
• 🏥 Hotez emphasizes the necessity of combating the aggressive anti-vaccine movement, which he states is actively dismantling the infrastructure for global childhood vaccination.
• 🔬 While acknowledging the difficulty, the book aims to name names and point fingers to confront these powerful forces threatening scientific progress and public well-being.