In discussions of climate change, medical issues, space science, etc. we often hear the retort ‘Do Your Own Research!’
When a new vaccine is created, there are elaborate processes of oversight and review. Most people don’t know about them, because they have not taken the trouble to find out.
Scientific research is not an attempt to prove something; it’s an attempt to find out something. If I devise a contrivance to test the Coriolis Effect, for example, at this point the fact is long since discovered, and verified by experience and peer review. It’s a “Demonstration,” not an experiment.
When Andrew Wakefield published his ‘study’ claiming that vaccines were the cause of autism, that’s only step one in the process. We do not make decisions on the basis of just one study. Other researchers set out to review the study, and found methodological errors. New studies both direct and meta- were conducted, and found that Wakefield’s conclusion was wrong. And not just wrong, but fraudulent. Wakefield actually lost his medical license.
Like the word ‘theory, there are two meanings for the word ‘research.’ One is scientific, one is colloquial. The word you’re looking for is ‘homework’ – scientific research is an attempt to find out something new or verify/deconstruct the findings of another researcher.
Do Your Own Homework.
georgewiman 