As of late, you may have noticed a spike in various movements that contradict or antagonize the scientific community, from anti vaxxers, raw milk drinkers, and even the carnivore diet. As much as we’d like to think that these extreme and seemingly fringe ideas don’t have a barring on day to day life, we know that not to be the case, with people succumbing to serious illnesses and even death from these practices (ex: the measles outbreak in Texas in 2025, leading to at least 3 deaths of young children that would otherwise be avoidable). But why is this rhetoric becoming more popular as of late, does it actually have an effect on population health, and what are some steps we can take to reduce its effects?
First let’s examine where this mistrust may have stemmed from in the first place. Up until recently, higher education was something not many people got to see. Universities, and Scientific were often mostly attended by those who came from well off backgrounds (and were usually white males), which informed how academia operated. On top of that, many of the ethical guidelines around scientific research and experiments were not established, and led to the harming of participants without being informed of the risks or the lasting effect. A recent example of this would be Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, in which students were split into prisoners and guards. The experiment, which was scheduled for 2 weeks, ended in just 6 days due to the worsening conditions, the cruelty of the guards, and the shock of the scene when it was viewed by an outside observer. On top of that, some studies that were poorly conducted, or have now been found to be fraudulent just plain wrong are still regularly cited by certain groups of people, such as the ‘Autism is caused by the MMR vaccines’ paper from Andrew Wakefield published in 1998. This, now retracted with the author getting their license revoked, paper is still cited by anti-vaxxers as the principle reason for their beliefs.
These attitudes have a huge impact on population health and “health” movements. In early 2025, due to a lack of vaccinations against measles, there was an outbreak in Texas and beyond that led to 325 cases, 60 hospitalizations, and 1 death between January and March according to the CDC. Even though measles had been on the decline for decades, to the point that most people wouldn’t be able to list symptoms, it still affected a scary number of people and led to completely avoidable consequences. On bringing back conditions that should (and would) have stayed in the past, people have also started drinking raw cow’s milk under the assumption that it was safe, nutritionally better, is better for the immune system, and would even cure ailments such as asthma, allergies, and lactose intolerance. Unpasteurized milk is not safe to drink and carries many foodborne illnesses including salmonella, therefore drinking it is not advised. Many people who have consumed raw milk have contracted illnesses from this and life threatening complications.
We’ve talked about where this line of thinking has cropped up and how it impacts people, but what can we do to minimize these attitudes? Making scientific and academic organizations more accessible would be a great start as it lowers the barriers around curiosity for science and prevents the othering of academia that leads to distrust. We can also put forth more resources towards education and learning resources, having a good foundation from school can make people more able to critically analyze information instead of blanket mistrust. Science communicators also play an important role in translating findings into more digestible forms for the general public, and should be propped up more for their ability to make this knowledge more accessible.
All in all, mistrust of academia and scientific organizations is a long standing and impactful issue, and has led to avoidable problems with public health. We can take steps to limit its prevalence and impact by making science and education more accessible and increasing its importance in the public eye.
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