Uncertainty could be in the minds of the most educated too….
Do you have a misconception that science is uncertain or ambiguous? Well, that’s a myth. There is uncertainty in each and every aspect of life. Science can be ambiguous sometimes and need to communicated effectively to the target audience, but if you observe everything in the world is uncertain and that’s what makes it amazing. Uncertainty is basically a subjective cognitive experience or a state of mind rather than a feature of the objective world. Its also a subjective awareness of one’s lack knowledge without which they cannot feel uncertain. For instance, in most cases highly educated individuals believe that COVID-19 could be cured by medicines or vaccines but the same may be perceived uncertain for people living in remote areas. They may feel familiarity with traditional medicines which they usually take to cure their ailments.
COVID-19 is one of the worst pandemic the world has witnessed. The nature of the virus is such that it’s cure is uncertain too. Scientists have come up with vaccines but the vaccines are just targeted to a specific disease and it becomes ineffective if the virus mutates. There is a probability that COVID-19 like viruses may re-occur again and they are already instances of its mutations. So, why are we trying to treat a particular disease? Why aren’t we working on some of the traditional medicines like Ayurveda which is not only disease specific but it makes the whole immune system strong so that even if the virus mutates we are resistant to that too. I agree that traditional medicines requires a lot of R&D to prove it’s efficacy but labelling it non-science is wrong especially by medical scientists who do not consider traditional medicines efficiency in curing this disease. These medical community need to know that from ancient times we have been using it for curing the worst of the diseases and we have been using it as first aid in the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic too. Yes, like any other science their is an uncertainty in traditional medicines too but opposing it to a core that it is unscientific is wrong.
Why do we consider science communication a one-way process? In this case medical communities must learn from the traditional medicine practitioners how they have been curing diseases or can help them in the research process rather than trivialising it. Why can’t the medical communities have an integrated approach for curing any disease rather than showing a superiority over others? Here comes the importance of science communication where the medical communities need to be communicated that traditional medicines like any other science could be efficient and trivialising it is incorrect. It is said that China and Madagascar cured its citizens by traditional medicines which gives us the hope that traditional medicines have a bright future and it could be uncertain but it is a WORK IN PROGRESS.
