Long-needed changes to scientific study structure

It's only 2023, for Pete's sake...

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Interesting article from the New York Times back in March. The National Academy of Science (NAS) put out a report that called for the restructuring of scientific studies, stating that ‘racial categories were poor proxies for genetic diversity and that social and environmental factors, like poverty and injustice, were often overlooked.’

***facepalm***

You think? Seriously, people.

But racism is a real thing. It’s easy to divide people based on look alone. You have dark skin, and you don’t, therefore you are different. Never mind that one comes from an affluent family with good nutrition and preventative health and the other uses meth. Never mind that one has a strong family history of breast cancer and the other has asthma. Let’s just divide them based on easily quantifiable parameters and call it a day.

I know I am being too harsh. Maybe. Genetic sequencing is a new thing and what else did our forbearers have to categorize humans into tidy boxes? The problem is: humans don’t fit into tidy boxes. We never have. We are messy and migratory and we do stupid stuff like inject chemicals into our blood and jump out of airplanes.

As the NAS report states, ‘Race is a sociopolitically constructed designation, is a misleading and harmful surrogate for genetically based population differences, and has a long history of being incorrectly identified as the major reason for mean phenotypic differences between groups.’

This goes back to phrenology and eugenics and all that nonsense. It’s a stupid thing to still be arguing about, when earth is warming, we’re sending people to the moon again, and sea creatures can glow a thousand colors. When we can see further than ever into space, we’re building computers that can (almost) think, and we can send cat memes across the globe.

Does the color of a person’s skin really matter? Their culture and their accent and their religious beliefs… ask yourself this and listen close for the answer: does it really matter?

Or how about the way medications interact with their enzymes. What nutrition they received while a child, the air they breathe, the resilience of their cells. This is something you can’t see. You have to listen to their stories, look at their history, do actual testing, and then make choices based on actual science, not whatever cultural holidays they celebrate.

It’s 2023. We’re better than this. We have the technology to improve the lives of so many. Let’s use this new science and get to work.

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Enjoy!

Anna, RN, BSN, CCRN

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Necessary disclaimer: I am discussing medications and medical conditions in this article based on my personal experiences as a nurse. Your facility may have different requirements and resources. Use your own nursing judgement to assess and treat your patients according to your governing body and facility guidelines. All information within this article is correct to the best of my knowledge, but should be confirmed through verified evidence-based sources. I am not responsible for any clinical decisions made based on this article.