Left-leaning, well-educated people like me, and many in the press, might be esp credulous of claims by experts in positions of public power. There’s a legit fear that any chip in expert authority is a gift to the anti-university, climate-denying right. 2/9
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But, as
#COVID19 shows, that sometimes blinds us from asking hard questions. Here are a few examples. 3/91 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Take the Feb 3 WHO meeting. Two appropriate followups: 1. What would be a “necessary” restriction? 2. Are you saying we need evidence to justify travel *restrictions*, but *no* evidence to justify allowing flights. Why? Why not be cautious until evidence says otherwise? 4/9pic.twitter.com/UHJrHhKZvb
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Here’s one on masks, from WHO guidance issued in April. Questions: “What is the evidence that this ‘false sense of security’ outweighs risks posed by the virus? Can this false sense be countered through public information?” 5/9pic.twitter.com/5uuKEVYTaB
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Also on masks, the Times ran an OpEd on Jan 28 with the print-edition headline “Common Sense Beats Masks.” (Note:print heds are not attributable to the writer.) Here’s what it said re masks: 6/9pic.twitter.com/eqXefsm7me
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If we had it to do over again, here’s a suggested editorial comment: “Implication of this graf is that everyone in large cities should wear masks most of the time, esp. indoors other than @ home. Please revise. This is, after all, the *New York* Times.” 7/9
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I get it. I was on this hellsite in Feb, and I didnt raise these issues. Frankly, I was cowed by seeming universal expert consensus. Once
@zeynep & others broke ranks, it was easier. This shows how strong the pull of expertise can be, even for someone who critiques expertise. 8/91 reply 0 retweets 2 likesShow this thread -
But those of us who want good things for the planet have to start questioning expert authority and accepting that all policy-relevant expert advice is deeply political. Otherwise, only the right will get it, and the right’s politics—as Ive said before—are awful. 9/9
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Replying to @jbentonheath
FWIW, some of us have been begging that WHO committee to drop the—evidence-free and if anything, counter-indicated by evidence—false sense of security to no avail. A few MD doctors who thought they understood people but were actually parroting incorrect pop psychology blocked it.
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Replying to @zeynep
That’s fascinating. I had thought it was an empty talking point (“may create”=“we have no idea”) designed to paper over the real concern about a run on supplies/hoarding/price gouging. I wouldn’t have suspected anyone was dug in on it as an actual theory of human behavior.
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It has been touted widely—in that key committee and also by many other medical health authorities including medical doctors of great renown, leading epidemiologists etc.—and in many cases, it has been utterly impossible to get them to look at the evidence and see it was nonsense.
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