A Must Read that really is a Must Read

I read, not so long ago, Ben Goldacre’s excellent book, Badscience.  It’s the kind of book that makes you want to tell every single person you meet that they MUST read it.  You really have to watch yourself and make sure you don’t cross the line from letting people know about something they can’t possibly find uninteresting to talking about it so much people stop inviting you to parties.

Everybody should read this book.  When I finished reading it I initially thought about writing a book review post, rather than this post a month later that’s more like a fan letter and a plea for the whole world to read the book rather than a review.  At the time I decided against it, figuring that having featured for some time on several best seller lists since its publication a few years ago, there wasn’t really much I was going to be able to add.  Besides, there are people that do reviews a lot better than me, here is a fairly thorough one from The Telegraph.

But then, this week, someone actually sent me material that dredged up the old MMR-Autism link.  This old chestnut has long been debunked after a period during which the British media in particular made a lot of people believe in claims made by a now discredited and disgraced doctor (you can read more about it on Badscience’s website here) with some of the most grossly irresponsible reporting ever seen and a determined drive for sensationalist stories.  Despite a complete about-face by the very same publications and their eventual reporting that there is, in fact, no link, it seems people will not stop believing that a link exists despite some very good evidence and thorough analysis showing the contrary.  This is a big deal.  People stop vaccinating their children as a result of this belief.  They put their own children and others at risk, and sadly, children have died unnecessarily as a result.  I wanted to weep with frustration when I saw this person sending around a link that peddled the same unfortunate and dangerous myth.  Kate, living in the UK where the scandal reached levels of insanity unseen in any other country in the world, and still home to some of the strongest anti-vaccination groups on the planet, actually did.

It’s clear that while you can’t fool all the people all the time there are still a lot of people out there being fooled a lot of the time.   So I write this post hoping that people who have read Badscience will lend their copy to as many people as possible and those who have not to beg, borrow and steal it.

If you have no interest in vaccinations or indeed science in general you’ll still find this book fascinating, if not least from the point of view of looking at the power of media and the organisations that manipulate it to their advantage.  And if media studies don’t float your boat, the fact that science affects social policy across the world should capture the interest of every other socially aware citizen.

What Goldacre shows the reader is not just that there is a lot of bad information out there masquerading as science but that it comes from the very institutions so many of us turn to for divining fact from fiction and critically reviewing scientific claims.  On the more cheery side, while it may not sound like it, it’s SUPER entertaining reading, and while you’ll be constantly astonished and often angered at the complete irresponsibility of some of these institutions, you’ll be frequently amused at the circus they’re dancing around with chuckles helped along by Goldacre’s very entertaining descriptions of the absurd.

Every one of us is faced with convincing but (demonstrably) false claims about anything from skincare and diet to homeopathy and alternative medicines every day.  Some of these claims are more harmful than others.  As the MMR scare has shown, parents are particularly vulnerable to misleading scientific information.   Constantly confronted with information and claims on vaccinations, childcare (“ daycare will make your child more aggressive”), the affect of dummies (pacifiers) on teeth, when to give up breastfeeding, blood-cord banking, cures for colic and more, parents are amongst those most in need of knowing how to critically assess the information they read and separate claims and opinions from fact.

It’s not just that you can’t trust any result that Google throws up, or blogs or forums.  You need to question the sources referenced by journalists, politicians, celebrities, pharmaceutical companies, naturopaths, vitamin companies, advertorials or anyone making science based claims, and be able to assess the quality of the trials or studies they’re referencing and therefore the validity of the results, because as Goldacre shows, there is not a large body of sharp shooting scientific-investigative journalists out there to do it for you.  This book will arm you with the knowledge and awareness you need to ask your own tough questions, with some basic tips and questions to consider and things to look out for.

If all this talk about science based claims makes you break out in a rash, you’re not alone, but Badscience will also put your trust and interest back in the work done by scientists, doctors and academics that really is of great value.

Ben Goldacre has a blog, badscience.net and a regular column in The Guardian.

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