This is a falsehood. Scientists did not do a series of crash studies in two weeks in March that upended decades of research. Rather, the prudential judgment about fragmentary information changed. This here is why the public does not trust experts: newrepublic.com/article/158058…
This is largely the same lie Frieden's CDC told the public in 2014, when it claimed that masks were not necessary to protect health care workers from Ebola, then reversed its stance after a nurse caught Ebola from her patient, but claimed it didn't. thenewatlantis.com/publications/t…
During both Ebola and early Covid, we were told by various public health officials that not only was wearing masks not necessary, it was counterproductive because it would falsely scare people — and the *real* contagions were fear, misinformation, and xenophobia.
A media world that's genuinely worried about why crazy Facebook uncles don't defer to public health experts should be paying a lot more attention to this than they are.
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