Since contracting Covid-19, I have witnessed first-hand the limitations of expert advice for a novel pandemic
As Covid-19 spreads across the United States, it leaves a slew of misinformation and conspiracy theories in its wake. The racist myths and Trumpian attempts to discredit public health officials are driven by a fundamental disbelief in science and the experts who understand it. The rise of such thinking on the right has led to a virulent defense of the scientific establishment from the left, and even the blind celebration of experts as pandemic heroes. While it’s crucial to correct misinformation and defend scientists from fascist censorship, it is also necessary to question and examine the information these experts provide us with. Science is not immune from political influence, and scientific experts should not be treated as such.
“Blind faith in science, as if it were entirely neutral and uncontaminated by politics, is naive and dangerous.” Aids activist Douglas Crimp wrote these words in 1988. In the absence of comprehensive information from a slow-moving scientific establishment, activists like Crimp sought to self-educate. “We cannot afford to leave anything up to the ‘experts’,” Crimp wrote, “we must become our own experts.”
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