The cost of a college education in the U.S. has been beyond the reach of most Americans unless students were willing to take on large debt to finance. Do we now have a misinformation maelstrom? Consequently, the majority of Americans have not received an undergraduate degree. Access for Canadians has been better. Collegiate level courses do impose an investigative burden on students to undertake the meaning of research in a critical way. In accessing such research citing references for formulating thoughtful response, a logical representation of assertions are presented oftentimes via term papers. This proactive pursuit of analyzing research data in the context of any shortcomings of research parameters or controls lends credibility when drawing conclusions or recommendations as does any acknowledgment of bias by the academic.

Academics have come under intense scrutiny with the proliferation of social media platforms. Politicians lacking in integrity have capitalized on the majority of a populous who have not been through any formal process of scrutinizing research through higher education but are amenable to the convenient mechanism of messaging through social media. A scholarly approach is to embark openly with objectivity, candour, and transparency whereby a non-scholarly approach may infuse personal bias, undocumented study, unsubstantiated assumed external influence, or hearsay.

Unfortunately, society has taken a dark path of late and a case can be made that ignorance from a lack of access to higher education deserves some blame. We’ve been witness to a segment of the population which believes that evil lurks at every turn and that liberty is under threat by government and /or elite covert entity(s). After all, if elite high net worth families are accessing off shore corporate accounts in order to avoid tax with impunity while my politicians continually exercise poor judgement on behalf of the electorate, and the gap between the rich and poor forever widens, then shouldn’t the common one be suspicious of any vaccine?

It’s hard to blame one unaccustomed to the scientific process of discovery to have faith in procedure when the canvass of a society is tainted by corruption, deceit, and legal largesse. What price is now being paid for a society of which for the most part has been blocked from access to higher education? We seem to be facing issues not necessarily anticipated through social media technology as a perceived by a net negative. Such a perception will not be calming to the ears of executives at Facebook, Alphabet Inc. (Google), or Twitter.