Much has been written in the Boulder City Review opinion pieces recently about “scientific research” and factual data regarding in the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to prevent and treat the disease. This includes (false) claims from other opinion authors that research has shown that masks are “ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID” (Savord, Oct. 27, and that vaccinated people transmit the virus to others “at a higher rate, and with more serious symptoms” than a person with natural antibodies (Ishihara, Nov. 24).
Seldom — if ever — however, are the sources of this information identified, or the veracity of the data being reported established or contextualized. (Both the false claims above are repudiated by scientific consensus views based on the totality of the current evidence; see Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study summaries, with bibliographic references, of “Community Use of Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2” and “SARS-SoV-2 Infection-Induced and Vaccine Induced Immunity” at cdc.gov.)
With the 21st century’s decentralization of news and information, and the accompanying explosive growth of social media and its associated “news feeds,” the era of a few nonpartisan, reliable sources of information trusted by the vast majority of Americans appears to have ended. And so, with the great splintering of (partisan) information in the current social media age, comes a new responsibility: to be our own fact checkers and reference sleuths.
As a...
The Management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has addressed claims suggesting that its petroleum products are exported to Lomé and subsequently re-imported into Nigeria. Calling ...