A recent viral video shows Saudi cleric, Sheik Bandar al-Khaibari, explaining in some detail why the Sun clearly revolves around a stationary Earth. Indeed, he claims that air travel would not be possible if the Earth rotated.
Before getting too smug, it’s useful to remind ourselves that a report last month from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) found that one in four Americans also believed that the Sun orbited the Earth. The study, carried out in 2012, asked 2,200 people to answer simple yes/no questions about science as well as their attitudes to science and scientists in general.
Shortcomings in science education have been suggested in the UK as well. The report, Tomorrow’s World, from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) found that around one third of primary schools failed to deliver the recommended two hours of science education per week.
So what has all of this got to do with this blog, and in particular, Good Clinical Practice?
One of the key principles of GCP is “informed consent” – a subject dealt with in some depth in Whitehall Training’s GCP courses. There is clear guidance on how to make consent briefings suitable for children, people with learning difficulties, disabilities etc but what about people who just don’t understand science?
GCP rules dictate that medical terms be avoided where possible in favour of simple, easily-understood terms - ”heart attack” instead of “myocardial infarction” for example.
But is this enough?
The anti-vaccination movement in the US is particularly vociferous – surely attitudes like these combined with a poor grasp of even the basics of science cannot help understanding in clinical trials.
One glimmer of hope is that over 90% of the Americans surveyed thought that scientists were working for the betterment of Mankind – clearly we’re doing something right.
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