Originally Posted by
hummingbear
Oh yes, I see that now. Your initial post quoted me calling someone out for making that comparison & I mistook you for him. Please accept my apologies for that.
As far as no longer paying attention to the experts, respectfully, I think this is an enormous error. Science makes mistakes but trends toward greater accuracy & consensus over time. We are still early on in our understanding of this virus. Couple that with the fact that the virus itself is changing, it follows that our understanding of it is also changing a lot. I’ll even consent there are lots of conflicting studies out there. But fewer today than there were a year ago, and fewer next year than today.
I get how frustrating it can be to feel like what they told you yesterday they are contradicting today, but that is to some degree the nature of a dynamic situation. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking just because the CDC reversed its guidance of mask wearing, they’ve become equal in credibility to a guy peddling baseless theories on YouTube. I can find you someone with an MD attached to their name that will be willing to confirm almost any medical nonsense you can come up with, just like I can find a meteorologist who lives in a floodplain or a pilot who has no business flying an airplane.
The best we can do is to look at the experts, not individually, but as a whole. Follow the most upheld & legitimate studies. They’re not always right, but they are much more frequently than you or I making gut-based opinions.
In the current climate how are we supposed to determine the most upheld and legitimate studies? I hate sounding like a conspiracy theorist but these days you can bet that any news (including COVID studies) that run counter to the “accepted” narrative are censored or at least subject to selective distribution. To be honest I’ve been conditioned in the past year to believe those storylines more than the ones that make it to the mainstream.
I think your point about not “dying on the hill” of the vaccine mandate at these private companies is well-intentioned. In the end it could very well prove to be sound advice. It’s also possible that the people who chose not to get the vaccine at any cost could end up being the smart ones. Who knows. But it’s something each person has to decide for himself.
Regarding following the experts as a whole....that’s kinda why we’re where we are as a society, and why we’re having this discussion. When looking at the Covid response through the broader lens of all the politics, unrest, mudslinging, and media gaslighting over the last year, how can anyone be surprised that we’re divided over the vaccines as well?