One of the things I hate about COVID-19 is how many smart people I admire and deeply respect now talk about scientists with derision.
And I’m not talking about the people you think. I’m talking about people who are generally pro-science etc. who got burned in various ways by the scientific and public health communities being slow/wrong/misguided at various points.
“Oh we’re not talking about all scientists,” they’ll say. “Just the public health authorities who gave bad advice! Oh, and maybe if you’re really asking, maybe also all the other scientists who didn’t say anything to contradict it.”
Anyway, scientists aren’t always right and you don’t always have to trust the scientific community, and yeah sometimes they’re exclusionary of non-experts and weird (trust me it’s worse on the inside.)
But it’s easy to see how the anti-science, anti-intellectual movement can take hold so easily in people. And you should never think “our side” is immune to it.
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