"At last the dam is breaking!"

Dr. Vinay Prasad writes,

Of course, a global pandemic will result in many wrong decisions, missed opportunities, and inevitable tragedy. But during this one, our officials have too often misled us, failed to make timely corrections of mistakes, doubled down on a foolish policy that simultaneously overburdened the young and neglected the elderly, and thus severely undermined public trust. I fear all this will be our Covid-19 legacy.

At last, the dam is breaking. Recently dozens of op-eds have lamented what has been the greatest crisis of the pandemic: our treatment of children. They have faced two years of disrupted education; continue to wear masks with no end in sight in many locations (both indoors and outdoors); and are constantly subject to testing, quarantining and pauses in school.

Many experts have called for more randomized trials during the pandemic. But they were ignored. We should have studied whether social distancing works, and how much distance is ideal. We should know a lot more about who to test, why we’re testing, and how often to test. Even school closure and reopening could have been studied. Randomized trials could have turned political fights into scientific questions. Not running them was a huge failure.

Don’t ignore scientific facts just because they don’t fit a policy imperative. For example, for most people, a Covid-19 infection results in a substantial immune response—what’s called “natural immunity.” But our officials, because of their singular focus on vaccines, have essentially ignored this basic fact, pretending natural immunity doesn’t exist.

Facebook infamously censored the lab leak hypothesis, only to recant, when the journalists Nicholas Wade and Donald McNeil showed that this was a story that needed exploring. Empowering massive technology companies with the ability to censor anyone is dangerous for an open society. I investigated Facebook’s third-party censors and found that in one instance, they selected a “fact checker” who had already tweeted criticism of the article they were asked to check. This is akin to selecting a juror for a trial who already stated she believes the defendant is guilty.

There is a real solution to information you do not like or that you disagree with: A detailed, methodical rebuttal. Not theatrical calls to silence the speaker.

We should rightly be celebrating the magnificent breakthrough of the mRNA vaccines, which were quickly developed, saved millions of lives, and hold the promise for further medical advances benefitting all humanity. We also now have (when doctors can get them) effective medications for vulnerable people who contract Covid-19.

Read more here: https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/how-to-save-science-from-covid-politics?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozNTcxNDgwMSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDg4MzM4NTgsIl8iOiJSbXlMKyIsImlhdCI6MTY0NTAzMzM2OCwiZXhwIjoxNjQ1MDM2OTY4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjYwMzQ3Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.m5B29FrbNhIzv2f2xaKqmhF2KEQcmj6PdRh1AUxS8-Y&r=l9hpt&utm_source=url