Science Isn’t Infallible, But It’s All We Have

Conservative news sources tell us that science isn’t always right, especially where the politics is concerned.  Of course science can be wrong.  It could be argued that it’s always wrong.  Think of how little of what we “knew” about physics, chemistry, astronomy, cosmology, and biology 500 years ago that we still hold true today.

Reopening the economy during the pandemic is a very hot topic with them; they believe that it’s the liberals (who hate America) who want to keep everything locked down.

My mom quotes Fox News in her assertion that Dr. Fauchi (a leftist?) has changed his mind several times about the validity of face masks, social distancing and school/business closures, as if this means that he’s incompetent, corrupt, or both.

Isn’t it more likely that dealing with a one-of-a-kind global tragedy might require some trial and error, and changing course according to what we’re learning?

The Fox narrative also includes the idea that Fauchi and the other government forces do not even try to take into consideration the pounding that the lockdown is taking on the economic, mental, and social health of our nation. A few points:

• The notion that only conservatives can comprehend the devastating impact the pandemic response is having on our lives is as ludicrous as it is insulting.  Who doesn’t understand that humankind’s reaction to this disaster is a complicated issue, i.e., how are we going to minimize the overall suffering?  Yes, there are the number of deaths and chronic diseases associated with COVID-19 itself, but there is also the suffering associated with the loss of small businesses, unemployment, suicide, social maladjustment–especially of young people, and so much else.

In addition, apparently there are people who can’t see that reopening too soon only means longer and more severe lockdowns, and therefore more financial misery, in the future.

 • The United States is not alone on this planet.  Is there a problem with taking into account what the other 200+ sovereign nations around the globe are doing vis-a-vis the pandemic and learning from their successes and failures?

 • Certain people are always going to believe that scientists are influenced by money or peer pressure to contort their findings in the direction of a particular political view.  We see this constantly in the climate change arena, where deniers claim that climate scientists are lining their pockets with grant money to study a phenomenon that factually doesn’t exist.  Obviously, I can’t swear that this never happens, but the fact that I know many of these people personally makes it impossible for me to believe that this represents something of real concern.

• Do we have a better option than to trust the scientists in their fields of expertise?  What does the extreme right suggest we do about the pandemic?  Voodoo?  We really don’t have a choice, except to regress a few centuries and treat the disease with leeches or blood-letting.

I like the cut of the jib of whoever created the meme above.  I too am going with science.