Below in my article published in the print version of the Sunday Guardian. अहन्यहनि भूतानि गच्छन्तीह यमालयम्। शेषा: स्थावरमिच्छन्ति किमाश्चर्यमत:परम्।। (Day after day, people enter the abode of Yama- the god of Death & Justice - yet those who remain believe that they will live forever. What can be more surprising than this?)
It's always important to look at the context of the times. The coronavirus pandemic was an unprecedented crisis, which means that there is always a possibility that people would err on the side of caution. When scientists make judgements, they are 100% entitled to be wrong, as long as they change their assessment as more facts emerge. It is true that some regulations like blocking of playgrounds/parks or excessively long school closures were clearly misguided and problematic for many, but the vast majority of the mandates, like those for vaccines, were necessary. How would it have been if public health officials and scientists kept repeating the same lines, only to see that their advice is clearly making the situation worse? How much more confusion could there have been if people are given contrasting advice during a crisis? Instead of belittling public health experts and science, we would do well to focus on implementing policies to mitigate such diseases from spreading, as well as holding the real culprits (the Chinese Communist Party for misleading the international community in their cover up, as well as the Trump Administration for repeatedly downplaying the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and injecting politics into the decisions made).
It's always important to look at the context of the times. The coronavirus pandemic was an unprecedented crisis, which means that there is always a possibility that people would err on the side of caution. When scientists make judgements, they are 100% entitled to be wrong, as long as they change their assessment as more facts emerge. It is true that some regulations like blocking of playgrounds/parks or excessively long school closures were clearly misguided and problematic for many, but the vast majority of the mandates, like those for vaccines, were necessary. How would it have been if public health officials and scientists kept repeating the same lines, only to see that their advice is clearly making the situation worse? How much more confusion could there have been if people are given contrasting advice during a crisis? Instead of belittling public health experts and science, we would do well to focus on implementing policies to mitigate such diseases from spreading, as well as holding the real culprits (the Chinese Communist Party for misleading the international community in their cover up, as well as the Trump Administration for repeatedly downplaying the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and injecting politics into the decisions made).