Still need guidance of scientists

Scientists start with the unknown. Then they apply the known to the unknown, thoroughly.

Then, armed with that knowledge, they propose hypotheses, which form the basis of experiments to gain new knowledge of the unknown.

If the experiments verify the hypotheses, scientists recognize they may have new knowledge, but scientists review each other to refine new knowledge.

If the experiments fail, they start over.

Now, what happens when science is called upon to solve an urgent, new scientific problem that endangers life and health, like COVID-19?

Scientists, including physicians and epidemiologists, follow the procedures as listed above, except that hypotheses verified through experimentation must quickly become policies, procedures and, in some cases, mandates.

Experiments to be sure, but confronted with a disease without precedent, they have no choice but to test solutions first on small populations, then to large ones, but as cautiously as conditions allow.

Scientists also change solutions -- OK, experiments -- as necessary to accommodate new knowledge.

When a pandemic becomes a national emergency, the president of the United States normally assembles teams of the knowledgeable, provides them with resources and supports them in every way available to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

Forty-five of our 46 presidents would have done it that way. But not 45, Donald Trump.

Trump instead decided he alone would resolve the pandemic without consultation, not because he was the president, but because he is Donald Trump and therefore infallible.

Because he could not admit his knowledge of medicine and managing large-scale public issues was near zero, he completely bungled the nation’s response to the pandemic.

OK, except for Operation Warpspeed, which did produce sound vaccines with amazing speed.

Because he was Trump, his response to his many failures was to double down on his first impulse, but when the failures became undeniable, the mistakes weren’t his.

He blamed the experts, like Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci, of course, is a real expert with a lifetime of effectively combating infectious diseases behind him and whom people still rely on for sound advice as knowledge about COVID-19 grows and the coronavirus mutates.

Trump and the Trumpists now think his best weapon against their idol’s bungling of the COVID-19 response is to politicize Fauci’s expertise, labeling as capricious inconsistency his adaptations to changing knowledge.

And that inconsistency, of course, is considered intentional. You know, the Deep State and all that.

They have gone so far as to accuse Fauci of aiding and abetting the manufacture of the COVID-19 virus in a Chinese laboratory..

This is a disservice to a knowledgeable public servant, but it also poses a danger.

The COVID-19 crisis is slowing, but it’s not over.

We still need the guidance of scientists like Fauci, who are willing to use real knowledge to combat the pandemic, far more than we need devotion to the self-styled infallibility of anybody.

Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]