The recent Physics Today Commentary entitled 'A Defense Of Science Communication' (August, p.7) landed with a pronounced 'gut punch' as I was forced to recall all the occasions in the last ten years I've had to defend accepted (settled) physics as well as biology and chemistry in numerous venues. But incredibly, most often in the redoubts of the intellectually "gifted" - i.e. in Mensa and Intertel. Some example blog posts I call to mind include the following blistering correction of Intertel climate science skeptic Thomas Nelson:
Skewering The Spurious Global Warming Narrative Of Another "High IQ" Libertarian: Thomas Nelson
But even Nelson's twaddle paled in comparison with Intertel member Michael Cook's diatribe against climate research as well as Dr. Fauci in one virulent attack on me (among 4 others) in the March, 2024 Integra. Cook, obviously brainwashed by RFK Jr's slanderous book, 'The Real Anthony Fauci', claimed "Fauci admitted his own lies and that he killed people".
In the April Integra, I shot back:
"Cook claims Dr Fauci has “admitted his own lies”. Where? When?
To do with what, exactly? Could I ask the impetuous gentleman if he would
kindly grace us with a supporting citation? By that I mean any published
admission from Dr Fauci that he “killed many people”. And from a proper,
credible journal or source, not a WSJ op-ed, FOX News propaganda or OAN. Those
are serious slanders on a scientist I’d argue has done more to get the US
through the Covid pandemic than any other ten epidemiologists. And in an environment
wherein he had to work against the recklessness of a 'resident' like Trump who
actually suggested (in one 2020 spiel) people inject themselves with bleach to
avoid the virus."
Another hard core Ilian, Alana Sullivan, also came after me with nonsense, but I dealt with her in a September, 2023 post:
All of the attacks by the high IQ society lot disclosed what I'd consistently claimed: Merely because they belonged to high IQ societies they felt they were entitled to spout off about anything - even if they'd not done basic research in the area. (Like basic thermodynamics before weighing in on climate change.) I then cited the Dunning Kruger Effect (i..e in the previous link) to show what that meant, i.e. "the metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their ineptitude."
Flash forward now to the Physics Today essay and we read:
"Certain bad actors have economic incentives to muddy the waters with untrue claims that sound persuasive to non-experts. For that reason and others we find ourselves in a cacophonous hubbub in which many citizens believe that there is a controversy surrounding topics that the scientific community has already settled. In reality it has already well established that climate change is real, vaccines are both highly effective and do not cause autism. Oh and the Earth is not flat."
All points that the illustrious members of Intertel who attacked me should have absorbed and processed but never did. (Again, a fault which I lay on a certain resistant strain of Libertarianism present in all the high IQ societies.)
All of which brought to attention a recent comment (NY Times) by Allan M. Brandt, a public health historian at Harvard University:
"I never have seen an instance of an advanced, affluent country with among the finest scientific resources and leaders in the world be under assault, not from small pockets of the public or people who have unusual beliefs, but from the government itself. This has just been radically unprecedented.”
The current chaos at the CDC let's bear in mind directly follows from the rampant ignorance displayed even in the high IQ societies. It has also raised international alarms
among researchers and health officials in other countries who worry they can no
longer trust a once-renowned institution. As observed by
“Scientific independence is what builds trust. Political interventions really erode that trust.”
The elementary insights above are what distinguish a genuinely advanced nation from a poseur, a pretender - which the U.S. has become under Trump 2.0. But indeed was moving toward that bottom feeder status as evidenced by the slew of attacks on settled science coming out long before. Especially from the ranks of the high IQ societies which have undermined their very status as shown in the links above.
See Also:
by Heather Digby Parton | September 1, 2025 - 5:29am | permalink
The recent purge of several high-level members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent shock waves through the political establishment. And with political shock waves seeming to hit every few hours these days, that’s quite a feat.
The ouster of Dr. Susan Monarez, the CDC’s new director and an infectious disease expert who was just confirmed by 51 Republican senators in July, was unexpected. But it was her unwillingness to sign off on dubious new COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and the apparent pre-determined findings of the vaccine board, which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has packed with his quack cronies, that likely did Monarez in.
That it immediately triggered the resignations of five other top CDC scientists in protest made it all the more astounding.
And:
by Steven Harper | September 3, 2025 - 4:46am | permalink
Vaccines have saved millions of lives. But for decades, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pursued a single-minded crusade against them. Numerous scientific studies have debunked his false claim that vaccines cause autism. But now he’s weaponizing the nation’s public health system to promote his ideological quackery.
Once a Crackpot, Always a Crackpot – But Now Possessing the Power of Life and Death
In a 2021 podcast, Kennedy urged Americans to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines.
In 2021, Kennedy said, “I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated.”
And:
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