..as may every PCR -based test used for any pathogen. Ever. This isn't news, it just (clearly) hasn't been explained to the public (& some media) before. Obviously top shelf medical reporters know this, but I'm unsure any longer if many of the public care enough to seek them out https://twitter.com/LaurenceBettle/status/1302240590336229376

If it takes a pandemic to make the public interested in things scientists took for granted decades years ago, it's not surprising we've seen angry rise of anti-science. Science, especially biology, just isn't present enough in many places & spaces. It's not there enough in school

These failures in communication are now paying science back & they'll keep doing so for the next months & years & beyond, if we don't do better. That will ultimately harm us all, scientists & the public of which they & their families are a part.

At the heart of progressing our lives is education & at the forefront of education is communication. We must do more of it and do it better. And to get that progress we have to minimize the forces that are actively undermining it and seeking to dumb us all down.

These malevolent forces, driven by profit & self-interest, are deliberately discouraging respect for knowledge & expertise, sowing chaos, hijacking communication & encouraging shouty angry discourse.

No, it's not down to scientists to be communication experts. They have to do the science.
Each country needs to fund an entire dedicated professional multicultural communication organization sitting between science/medicine/public health & the public.

If there are to be changes as a result of this pandemic-& I have my doubts there will be-this, alongside better appreciation & reward of all those who truly keep the world moving, needs to be one of them
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