I’m not talking about made up data, which is not real science, and I’m not talking about science communicators distributing the data disguised as a narrative. I also agree that mainstream media presents nonsense. However, equally so does DIY alternative media on the other side of the scale. I’m also not saying that people should blindly follow what they’re told by mainstream media. Studies are fabricated, or bought out. I’m saying that good studies are done every day by good scientists in search of good evidence and good scientists can tell the difference and non scientists can’t. That’s not an appeal to authority, that is just true. If you learn something well, you can distinguish truths and falsehoods in that field better than people who haven’t. Anything else is dunning Krueger fuelled, unfounded arrogance. One also notices that good scientists never speak in absolutes like social media influencers. They suggest “the data leans toward these set of conclusions, which could be disproven given more evidence”

You can “do the work” and become an expert in a given field and verify these things for yourself. This is obviously a huge undertaking, so obviously one must outsource this. You can find trustworthy communicators that only use good data and research as evidence and explain why. You can also question everything and find influencers who will craft any narrative with hodgepodge studies with the information you are searching for and provide zero real verifiable evidence and that seems like science. This can be something that is presented as mainstream media sometimes.

This is why I trust that because very few immunologists and biologists are kicking off about vaccines, and a very large subsection of influencers are, that there is a mismatch in the ability to interpret the data.

Knowledge is power. Just because a mainstream narrative is untrue doesn’t mean the converse counter narrative is true. The world is nuanced, good data exists and it can suggest certain things are evident.

This is why I won’t buy the antivax argument until someone can present me with anything that isn’t just an anecdote or a weaponised narrative masked as science, because being a skeptic means remaining skeptical, even of scepticism.