People trust celebrities, politicians, and social media personalities, and discount scientists as corrupt.
Scientists are often wrong, their work should be scrutinized and debated vigorously. But over the past three years, people with journalistic status and little training and influence on infectious disease are shaping public debate.
And “scientists and public health experts are often cast as not to be trusted, captured by vested interests, lacking common sense, and out of touch with what most Americans think and believe.”
Recent headlines are wrong: Masks work to protect against Covid, and strong evidence points to a Wuhan market origin, not a lab leak.
The Self-Appointed Covid Experts Are At It Again. By Gregg Gonsalves at The Nation