This Week in Science – The Kickass Science Podcast · Dr. Kirsten Sanford Science Media

Interview: Science Under Siege

·48 min·3 clips

RF Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaxxer trying to block access to vaccines and defund new vaccine work.

1. This Week in Science episode 1030, titled Science Under Siege, centers on Michael Mann and Peter J. Hotez discussing their book Science Under Siege. 2. Dr. Kiki hosts the conversation, while Mann, a University of Pennsylvania climate scientist, and Hotez, a Baylor College of Medicine vaccine researcher, matter because both have lived through public attacks on their fields. 3. The episode asks what science can do when climate policy, vaccine policy, and public trust are all under pressure at once. 4. Hotez says his COVID-19 vaccine reached 100 million people, and he links that work to bypassing big pharma companies. 5. He also says his original research focus was hookworm disease, which is now moving through clinical trials. 6. Mann says climate modeling, health sciences, AI, and machine learning are pushing scientific frontiers forward. 7. Mann says U.S. public policy is moving backward while the science itself keeps advancing. 8. Both guests describe a three-legged problem: pandemic threats, climate crisis, and anti-science disinformation. 9. They say misinformation and disinformation block the ability to act on the other two threats. 10. Hotez describes a climate-health link in Texas and the Gulf Coast, naming dengue, chikungunya, Zika virus infection, and hookworm infection. 11. Mann says young scientists need a path that avoids doomism and still allows action. 12. Hotez says institutional silence can be as damaging as outside attacks because it discourages scientists from speaking publicly. 13. Mann says public communication leaves a vacuum if scientists do not explain both the science and how science works. 14. The guests cite Research America, saying 75 percent of Americans cannot name a living scientist. 15. Hotez says the public often names Einstein or Jonas Salk first, while Mann mentions Bill Nye as a better-known communicator. 16. They link their book to Naomi Oreskes' Merchants of Doubt and to tactics first honed by the tobacco and gun industries. 17. Mann says climate attacks, vaccine attacks, and media framing can be traced through plutocrats, petro states, propagandists, pros, and the press. 18. The interview style is conversational and collaborative, with Kiki pressing for practical advice and both guests responding directly to one another. 19. People interested in climate science, vaccines, and public communication would likely value this episode. 20. People looking for light banter or a short news roundup may skip it. 21. Hotez says the ACIP vaccine situation is part of a systematic effort to weaken vaccine infrastructure and pandemic preparedness. 22. Mann says the EPA climate report fight showed an unprecedented response from the National Academy of Sciences. 23. Both guests warn that debating science deniers can create false balance and give audiences a misleading 50-50 frame. 24. Mann says younger scientists should be supported if they choose public communication, but not forced into it. 25. Hotez says the field can still solve big problems, including cancer vaccines and infectious disease vaccines, if scientists adapt to a harder funding environment.

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