Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update August 8: It’s not just that we have a distrust of experts, it’s also that the people who dismiss experts think they’re experts themselves. 1/

In the last week I find myself needing to check credentials even more closely. 2/

We have data scientists opining about T-cell immunity. 3/

We have political advisors making proclamations about school safety. 4/

We have people who haven’t taken a science class in 40 years recommending specific drugs. 5/

We have former newspaper reporters explaining epidemiology and the natural history of disease. 6/

We have legislators opining about how masks don’t work. 7/

We have family doctors on Fox who consider COVID the flu. 8/

As long as things are uncertain as they are with a novel virus, it’s a chance for everybody to weigh in with their opinions. 9/

And then there’s the inverse between the amount of data and the amount of confidence. 10/

One of the country’s top epidemiologists & public health officials told me that the people most certain about COVID-19 are those who have the least experience. 11/

Just because experts are wrong occasionally seems to give non-experts the impression they have equal standing.

Peter Navarro still isn’t Anthony Fauci. 12/

When experts like Fauci say the don’t know something, it gives Jim Jordan the license to say “aren’t you an expert?”

Then Jordan gets to be an expert on protests and outdoor transmissions. 13/

Trump has a cancel-cabinet. Cancel education. Cancel the environment. Cancel housing & urban development. Cancel health & human services. Cancel justice.

14/

So when it’s time for expertise, Bill Barr can say “sure you can do an executive order” & Azar can say “sure you can force that drug to be approved.”

When all opinions are equal, hierarchy decides right from wrong.

15/

One day we might have a crisis and then we’ll probably wish that not only that we had a few people who knew something but that we had a few that knew what they didn’t know. /end