https://mishpacha.com/scientists-as-mere-mortals/
Just after Purim of 2021, I felt confident enough that Covid-19 had its source in a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology to write, “The likeliest scenario for the emergence of SARS2 [Covid-19] is that it is the result of genetic engineering at the WIV, and that research was, at least in part by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and carried out under minimal safety precautions.”
Needless to say, I did not reach that conclusion based on my own scientific expertise, of which I have none, but on the basis of excellent articles by Toronto neuroscientist Dr. Norman Doidge (“A Plague on Both Our Houses,” Tablet, Feb. 18, 2021) and former New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade (“Origin of COVID — Following the Clues,” Medium, May 5, 2021).
Science is a force that can be used for evil too.
ReplyDeleteDepends on the individuals and what their agenda is.
Politics ruins everything and from the beginning, it ruined the public's trust during the pandemic.
DeleteHere in Canada, our chief public health officer openly admitted that she ignored warnings and advice from Taiwan because listening to them would make China angry at Canada. Wait, you put China's feelings over our safety? Hmmmmmm.
Fauci's conflict of interest with Wuhan along with his later admissions that he was making things up destroyed trust in public health officials.
Then there was the Great Barrington Declaration which was delivered by experts in the field and contained quite reasonable suggestions on how to handle the pandemic. It contradicted the government's "Lock everything down and put everyone on government payments!" message so it was villified but people saw through that too.
So do you wonder why, by the time vaccines came out, no one wanted to believe what they were told anymore?
There is science and there is scientism and then there's politics.
ReplyDeleteNuclear science has given us the potential to end much of our dependency on fossil fuels (if we'd only do that), medical tests and treatment. It's also given us the capacity to wipe out all life on the planet. Politics will decide which will prevail.
The same with virus research. From that we've learned a great deal about disease management using viral vectors as well as vaccine advances. And we also got CoVID.
At the height of the pandemic, I remember referring to Fauci as a Mamzer, and getting wrapped for it by our honourable blogmaster!
DeleteOur blogmaster thinks simplistically: the enemy of Trump must be a great guy. No, sometimes he's also a bastardo.
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