Why Donald Trump's Age of Unreason, Anti-science and Denial is coming soon to Scotland

And so it was that, on Blue Monday – supposedly ‘the most depressing day of the year’ because of the dark nights, post-Christmas blues and financial worries which apparently peak around this time – that Donald Trump was sworn in as US President for the second time. Among the saddest will be members of the scientific community.

I well remember the heartfelt concerns expressed by many scientists when I attended the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston less than a month after his first inauguration in 2017.

Some feared science would become so politicised that ideology would ‘trump’ reality, as happened in the former Soviet Union, where any scientist who dared to discover something that conflicted with communist philosophy would soon be persuaded to undiscover it.

Donald Trump will loom large over politics in Scotland and the UK (Picture: Chip Somodevilla) | Getty Images

‘Almost a cleaning’

Thankfully, the direst visions laid out during that tumultuous time did not come to pass and science in America continued despite the president’s ridiculous and, at times, downright dangerous interventions.

The most infamous example of this, when he attempted to suggest new forms of Covid treatments during a press conference, is worth repeating. “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous... whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light," he said in remarks directed at Dr Deborah Birx, his coronavirus response coordinator. "And I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it. And then I said, ‘supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way’. And I think you said you're going to test that too. Sounds interesting.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So it'd be interesting to check that."

Here was Trump using his power, arrogance and ignorance to play at being the world’s ‘saviour’ – with potentially fatal consequences, as injecting disinfectant might well lead to a very painful and horrific death. After widespread uproar about his remarks, Trump then claimed: "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters just like you, just to see what would happen.”

Rather than admit he had acted foolishly, Trump essentially tried to argue he knew injecting disinfectant was a bad idea but that he had been playing some sort of game with the journalists, despite the danger that members of the public might take him seriously.

Fatal consequences of vaccine scepticism

If another pandemic hits, America better hope against hope that Trump has learned some humility. Unfortunately, if anything, today’s signs look worse. His decision to nominate ‘vaccine sceptic’ Robert Kennedy Jr as Health Secretary suggests he is doubling down on the idea that amateurs somehow know better than experts.

Asked by Time magazine “whether he would approve of an end to childhood vaccination programmes”, Trump said he would have a “big discussion” with Kennedy, and added: “The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it.” The comprehensively debunked idea that vaccines cause autism is a central claim of the idiotic ‘anti-vaxxer’ movement.

In response to Kennedy’s nomination, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, a University of Oxford vaccine expert, said: “... there is a real concern that his appointment could provide a new platform which he might use to pursue the same anti-science positions on life-saving public health interventions that he has advanced previously, and that he could continue to promote and misrepresent evidence to support spurious claims on vaccines. If this makes families hesitate to immunise against the deadly diseases that threaten children, the consequence will be fatal for some.”

He pointed out that vaccines prevent up to five million deaths a year worldwide and “even a small change in confidence will be a disaster for many families”.

Vaccines rank alongside antibiotics as some of humanity’s greatest ever achievements. The main problem with vaccines is the growing reluctance among the general public to take them, threatening ‘herd immunity’. The main problem with antibiotics is the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a situation the previous Trump administration treated with indifference and, according to some, made worse.

Trump ignoring thermometers

Trump’s attitude towards climate change is also at odds with well-established science. He offers no counter theory and does not argue with the thermometers or the disappearing glaciers in the US National Glacier Park in Montana, he just simply ignores them. And the huge upsurge in wildfires in the western US, as predicted by climate science and seen recently to devastating effect in Los Angeles, is somehow the Democrats’ fault, according to Trump.

And when America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold. In the UK, Nigel Farage’s Reform party are the coming political force and they appear to have rather similar attitudes.

Their manifesto promised a public inquiry into “vaccine harms”, saying “excess deaths are nearly as high as they were during the Covid pandemic”. It also argued “we must not impoverish ourselves in pursuit of unaffordable, unachievable, global carbon dioxide targets”.

To give them some credit, they did pledge to ”increase and incentivise... tidal power”. However, just as they deny the damage done to the UK economy by the barriers to trade caused by Brexit and the reasons why immigration has been high, they also deny the clear need to reduce carbon emissions in order to tackle climate change and, as importantly, modernise our economy.

In troubled times, it’s tempting to live in denial about our problems, insist the experts have got it all wrong, and find scapegoats to blame. And the doubling of support for Reform in Scottish opinion polls since July shows they are a political force to be reckoned with.

So it seems highly likely that Trump's new Age of Unreason, Anti-science and Denial is coming here soon. It remains to be seen exactly how well it will go down.