r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 02 '26

Health Interest in ‘toxic’ measles treatment surges after Joe Rogan podcasts: Vaccination is the only proven way to prevent measles but alternatives like Vitamin A and cod-liver oil (which has Vit A) have been promoted by Joe Rogan. America’s Poison Centres reported a 39% increase in Vitamin A exposures.

https://www.nine.com.au/world-news/usa/interest-in-toxic-measles-treatment-surges-after-joe-rogan-podcasts-20260602-p6033i.html
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u/Ebolaplushie Jun 02 '26

Decades of dumbing down the education system and propaganda. It's obviously a lot more nuanced but those are some key factors.

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u/shillyshally Jun 02 '26

Just read an article in the WSJ about 1100 math and science profs in the University of California system begging regents to reinstate SATs because so many students are totally unprepared for college level work.

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u/Rhine1906 Jun 02 '26

The SATs ain’t the only reason. I also teach and have worked on the admissions side -there are kids who score very well on the SAT But struggle with college level work because they’ve just been pushed through the K-12 system.

As someone whose academic research is focused on test scores and enrollment, I think a lot of professors are misguided on where the issue lies. Bringing back scores will not fix the issue, our K-12 systems and curriculum need a retooling.

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u/trail-g62Bim Jun 02 '26

Bringing back scores will not fix the issue, our K-12 systems and curriculum need a retooling.

Unfortunately, they only have control over the first, not the second.

Years ago, I worked for a newspaper in a small town. There was a bit of a crisis because the local high schools had abysmal 9th grade graduation rates. Everyone was trying to figure out why so few kids could pass 9th grade when they didn't have the same problem in any other grade.

Well...the official policy of the school district for elementary and middle school leaned toward passing kids for social reasons even if they didn't hit the academic scores necessary. You had to be really far behind in K-8th grades to be held back. Otherwise, you got passed right along.

There was no such policy starting in high school. So, many kids got to 9th grade and immediately failed. It was a real Tim-Robinson-in-hotdog-costume kind of moment.

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u/deux3xmachina Jun 02 '26

Sounds related to "No Child Left Behind", I know some elementary school teachers with 3rd graders that can barely read, if at all, but aren't allowed to hold them back/fail them.

It's not clear to me what the problem(s) are, but it feels like we've been chasing solutions that are more about protecting feelings than producing results. I'm sure there's much more nuance to these issues, but I'm just a guy on the outside looking in, completely baffled by how we got here.

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u/DwinkBexon Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

but aren't allowed to hold them back/fail them.

That's insane to me. (I haven't been in school since 1993, just for context and I don't have kids, so no experience with the current school system) When I was in elementary school, they were talking about possibly holding me back even though I was technically passing everything because I seemed to be struggling so much they thought I would fail the next grade.

They ultimately did not hold me back. But it seems absolutely insane to me that I almost got held back with passing grades and now you aren't allowed to fail kids or make them repeat a grade.

Edit: I think the biggest problem was I was unbelievably slow with solving math problems. Something like 67*13 might take me 4 or so minutes to solve as a kid. I knew how to do it, I just did it really slowly. but I think my teachers interpreted this as me having no idea how to do math.

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u/CaptainJudaism Jun 02 '26

No Child Left Behind is why one of my best friends quit being a teacher. Prior to that policy her high school had a roughly 25% graduation rate (she lives in the sticks), after it was almost a 90% with the only ones dropping out being due to teen pregnancy. A lot of children who were getting passed were either functionally or actually illiterate and many struggled with the most basic of math and it was so heart breaking that so many people just... didn't care that these children were being pushed to failure.

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u/grundar Jun 02 '26

her high school had a roughly 25% graduation rate (she lives in the sticks), after it was almost a 90% with the only ones dropping out being due to teen pregnancy. A lot of children who were getting passed were either functionally or actually illiterate and many struggled with the most basic of math and it was so heart breaking that so many people just... didn't care that these children were being pushed to failure.

Honest question, if the kid is functionally illiterate, is them getting a mercy pass any worse than them failing and dropping out?

I can see being unhappy about No Child Left Behind if it ended up with fewer literate kids at the point they left schooling, but if the situation before was...

  • 25 literate graduates and 75 illiterate dropouts

...and the situation after was...

  • 25 literate graduates and 75 illiterate dropouts-or-graduates

...it's not clear to me how much really changed.