This piece by Dan Rather is a good example of the motivated reasoning that has poisoned the discussion over covid origins, and ironically a very unscientific approach. Whether science is under attack or not should have zero bearing on investigating how the pandemic started.https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1406611921256828930 …
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If millions of people died because research into preventing a pandemic created the conditions for starting one, that is the most important lesson we could learn from covid. Getting the answer right, one way or the other, is the only way to prevent this all from happening again.
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I'm not asking anyone to believe the evidence we have right now is adequate. But I wish commentators like Rather would stop conditioning their beliefs on the consequences of one answer or the other being right, and stop attacking the question itself as somehow harmful.
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The one thing that science is supposed to be best at—updating beliefs based on new evidence—is something we've consistently failed at all through the pandemic. The mantra of "believe the science" revealed itself as just an argument from authority dressed up in a lab coat.
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Occam's Razor isn't actually a scientific principle. The relevant principle here is whether there is enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis. So far there isn't any evidence one way or the other. It's fine to ask the question though!
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Occam's razor is absolutely a scientific principle, and calling the explanation that doesn't involve a lab leak the null hypothesis is begging the question.
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My takeaway from Rather’s article was more that it’s irresponsible to go nuts wantonly attacking science in general, which is what Stewart was doing. He wasn’t just criticizing lab safety, he was saying “scientists are going to kill us all” which is harmful.
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