A CELEBRITY CHEF declares dairy causes osteoporosis, and cholesterol medication is bad. Parents shy away from giving their children life-saving vaccinations. People are stringing crystals around their neck, then necking kale juice on the way to the chiropractors to have their neck cricks cracked.

‘Truthiness’ – where made-up information parades as fact – too often trounces truth. Thanks to Web 2.0, we are swamped by information. And many people are unable to sift out the misinformation. Some start to fear science and all it has produced. The anti-vaxxers and those who reject modern medicine join tribes online and in the real world and reinforce each other’s beliefs. Climate deniers snuggle down in their comfortable little belief cocoons, rejecting evidence and rational thought.