There is a lot of discussion these days about the big question of how one could actually get more people to be vaccinated against Sars-CoV-2. Surveys repeatedly show that many people are unsure, but many are certainly not radical objectors. Often heard sentence: You are not fundamentally against the injection, but first want to form your “own opinion”.
Of course there is nothing to be said against this, on the contrary. How nice when people think about their health and their bodies. It becomes problematic, however, when the call for “one’s own opinion” is based on an attempt to undermine scientific knowledge. As if it were possible to do better research with your own thoughts than thousands of scientists worldwide do every day. Because this project is sometimes difficult or even impossible, the desire for your own opinion often turns into a jumble of false news and half-truths. One says like that, the other like that, many mean something, but nobody really knows for sure.
Nobody can study the laws of nature from scratch on their own
But when opinions and facts mix, or worse, when opinions are based on false assertions, danger is on the way. For yourself, because yes, the coronavirus can kill, especially the unvaccinated. But also for the work of scientists who have not only been exposed to hostility since the pandemic. The attempt to put one’s own opinion above long-established facts ultimately crumbles the foundation of every discourse – and with it the foundation of a society.
Science, if you will, is the lowest common denominator that you agree on before you start discussing. Viewed even further from above: Science is a democracy project. The call for “your own opinion” often reduces long-established knowledge to a counter-opinion – which you can then more easily reject. That makes you feel right, but it harms the togetherness.
But it is worthwhile not to see science as a whole as a threat to one’s own opinion, but as its basis. The earth is not flat and, like it or not, a virus is always transmitted exactly where people come together.
And so it becomes clear: It is impossible for a single person to study the laws of nature from scratch with his own thought. But the nice thing is that it doesn’t have to be. Thousands of scientists around the world have already done the work for you.