Researchers previously believed sickness stemmed from “miasma,” noxious fumes that floated through the atmosphere. For hundreds of years, they were convinced that the sun revolved around Earth. Up until the 1950s, they considered lobotomies the optimal approach for managing psychiatric conditions.

What caused us to abandon these beliefs? In every instance, doubters employed the scientific method to generate evidence that refuted the prevailing theory. They formulated hypotheses, conducted experiments, made observations, performed analyses, refined their work, and ultimately published findings that triggered a transformation in our shared comprehension of reality.

All major scientific advances throughout history originated from a “what if” question that transcended conventional wisdom to explore potential realities. Skepticism and discussion serve as lenses that examine existing concepts and foster the creation of novel ones. Consequently, perhaps the growing trend of questioning science represents a positive development.

However, this latest surge of doubt differs fundamentally. Its most vocal proponents are advancing assertions about COVID-19, climate change, and vaccines without any evidentiary support. Treating subjective viewpoints as objective truths while disregarding experimental evidence and data undermines the integrity of the scientific method.

This poses a grave threat. The scientific method represents humanity’s most potent instrument for transforming society. It enables our collective transformation of mystery into knowledge, addressing ambiguity and constructively processing scientific uncertainty as it emerges.

When applied effectively, the scientific method relegates humanity’s most severe afflictions (incapacitating sicknesses, catastrophic diseases) to the past. It cures the afflicted and nourishes the starving. Science creates miracles.

Following World War II, Vannevar Bush, director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, stated: “But without scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation in the modern world.”

U.S. funding in scientific research transformed our nation into a global leader in economics, technology, and defense. We split the atom, developed the polio vaccine, and created the internet; engineered GPS and CRISPR gene-editing technology; and recently assisted in landing humans on Mars.

Based on National Science Foundation estimates, approximately half of all economic expansion since WWII stems from progress in science and technology.

The device you’re using to read this article wouldn’t exist without the scientific method; the banana you consumed this morning would have been eliminated by a catastrophic plant disease decades ago; and last week’s influenza could have meant your death within days.

In the absence of science, we would be more impoverished, more ill, and more vulnerable.

Should the scientific method become corrupted, we won’t merely cease creating new miracles; we’ll dismantle validated past discoveries. For instance, observe the growing dismissal in some circles of germ theory and numerous vaccines. What’s preventing similar flawed reasoning from targeting cancer therapies, anesthesia, or antibiotics?

It may seem hyperbolic to warn that we could revert to 1900 conditions, when American life expectancy was 47 years and pneumonia and flu ranked as top mortality causes. Yet measles—a lethal illness declared eliminated in 2000—will rebound if the outbreaks recorded across the U.S. since January 2026 persist in the coming weeks.

(For perspective, throughout 2025, the U.S. reported 125 total cases. Confirmed cases in just the first two months of 2026 have already exceeded half that figure.)

Disregarding the substantial proof of vaccine effectiveness constitutes a rejection of the scientific method.

While certain Americans erode the scientific method, China has been making substantial investments in it. Over the past ten years, China has boosted its scientific method expenditures through a 300% rise in biopharmaceutical R&D funding. China currently treats a greater number of patients with gene therapies and maintains a comparable quantity of clinical trials.

If we persist in delegitimizing the scientific method, America faces becoming an innovation wasteland, dependent on foreign nations for novel medications and technologies and powerless to safeguard our citizens during emergencies, from bioterrorism to future pandemics.

More frighteningly, we jeopardize our wellbeing. We gamble on having no solutions when illness emerges, and on losing babies and youths to pathogens their immature immune systems cannot combat. We chance forfeiting the next authentic, data-driven scientific breakthrough.

We have the option to maintain our miracle-making apparatus and construct a tomorrow marked by wellness, safety, and extended lifespans. We can demand that doubters voice their concerns via the scientific method, honoring the legacy of history’s most esteemed researchers.

Alternatively, we can persist in forsaking the scientific method and jam the machinery of science, condemning ourselves to an era of sickness, scarcity, and deterioration.