Thread by @petermbenglish

1/ . @jimalkhalili's Life Scientific on @BBCRadio4 this morning had a scientist (? @SirPaulNurse of @TheCrick ) saying:

"When [SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 pandemic] arrived, we knew nothing about it."

Nonsense!

We knew a lot about Coronaviruses.

2/ We knew a lot about the immune system, how it interacts with pathogens, and how it can overreact to cause an acute (short term) overreaction (cytokine storms…); and about long-term autoimmune disease.

We knew a lot about treatments for autoimmune diseases.

3/ We knew a lot about vaccines and how they work. (Objections to sensible decisions - like extending the prime-boost interval - were based on the fallacy that "we know nothing…", and ignored decades of work on vaccination.)

4/ We knew a lot about behavioural science and how it could be applied to change behaviour.

We knew a lot more.

Sure, there was a lot we didn't know. But we knew a helluva lot!

5/ I know @SirPaulNurse knows this.

I know he meant that there was a great deal we didn't know, including how much of what we knew about very similar things would would apply to this pandemic.

I know it was a throwaway line in preparing a point.

6/ But I am fed up with this fallacy being repeated so often.

In this case the fact that it was a throwaway line meant it was accepted unchallenged.

7/ I'm sure Nurse didn't intend it as propaganda; but sneaking false premises through so people accept and believe them is a favourite tool of populist polemicists (like the evil man I shan't name who's been described as "nicotine-stained frog man".)

8/ But "we don't know…" became an excuse for procrastination, inaction, and delay.

We could and should have acted quicker, based on vast amounts of knowledge.

9/ This excuse - "we don't know [enough]" or "we're not certain" - was used too often as a pretext, and to justify ministerial lies that "we are following the science".

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