‘Do your own research!’ is a statement I am seeing frequently nowadays, especially when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination.
Perhaps it is a mistrust of anything media related or the explosion of the socials and the amount of misinformation being peddled from people all over the world.
Perhaps it is a mistrust in government, the politics or in the person delivering the message?
Perhaps it is the post-Trump effect still insidiously infiltrating our thinking?
‘Doing your own research’ is not an easy task.
There are people all over the world based in universities, scientific institutes and other centres of research who have dedicated decades of their life to learn to ‘do research’.
They learn how to detect bias, how to dissect information, how to effectively and accurately study and research and how to present this information to further human knowledge.
Us mere mortals in the community cannot ‘do our own research’.
Without training in how to effectively research, any ‘answer’ will be biased by our own world view, whether that is cultural, political or religious.
Googling a topic or watching a YouTube clip doesn’t constitute research but merely provides a source of entertainment.
So who do we trust to give us the best information regarding COVID-19 and vaccinations?
The best place to start would be experts in the fields of virology, infectious diseases, public health, biotechnology, pathology and a myriad of other expert fields.
We may not hear individually from these experts but through the voices of our chief health officers who are responsible for bringing all this information together to formulate the best way of protecting our citizens.
These are the people whose purpose it is to ensure that we navigate our way through the pandemic with the least harm caused to our society.
Perhaps it is time that the politicians stood aside and stopped playing politics with this issue and let the chief health officers do their jobs without hindrance or political point scoring.
Perhaps trust can be won back for the successes of science and our ability to overcome yet another disease with vaccination of the masses.