The Dangerous Stupidity of "Doing Your Own Research"

In a recent interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that parents of newborn babies should do their own research before vaccinating their babies. Here's the full quote:

"I would say that we live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research. You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they’re getting, and you need to research the medicines that they’re taking as well."

This came in the same week that Kennedy also announced that the FDA would be implementing a ban on the use of food dyes, which will significantly impact the production of brightly colored "foods" like Froot Loops cereal.

So in one case, the FDA is doing the job it's meant to do by acting in the best interests of public health, based on credible research that shows the negative health impacts of food dyes on our health. In the other case, with vaccines, they offer no guidance and instead leave the choice up to already overwhelmed parents of newborns.

This is a dangerous level of stupidity that is already causing preventable deaths. Yet it does fit into the larger belief that allowing Americans to “do their own research” and make up their own minds is always a good thing. Here's why it isn't:

• Credibility can be faked - You can find "research" to support nearly any belief online, and credible sources are hard to separate from opinion media.
• Research is hard to interpret - Most people don't have the scientific training to understand what the research actually means or how to use it.
• Expertise becomes underappreciated - Elevating the idea that we should all form our own opinions about difficult topics often ends up undermining the authority of actual experts.
• People want guidance - With many complex things, people actually want to know what to do rather than trying to figure it out for themselves.

The idea of doing your own research has itself become politicized today. And I am not suggesting that doing the work to understand an issue is not important. But selectively offering guidance based on science for one issue and ignoring it for another seems irresponsible and likely to hurt people.