To end this pandemic, we must trust science
IF A THEME runs through the books and articles I’ve written over the past 40 years, it’s a fascination with what scientists have learned about the human body. A long career spent explaining biomedical research has led me to a deep respect for the scientific process. Despite its occasional missteps and self-corrections, I believe it ultimately moves us toward a clearer understanding of the world and how to thrive in it.
So as scientists first scrambled to figure out the never-before-seen coronavirus, I was primed to follow their advice about how to keep safe, based on the hypothesis that the virus was transmitted mostly by droplets from coughs and sneezes lingering on surfaces. I dutifully wiped down countertops, refrained from touching my face, and washed my hands so emphatically that the little diamond in my wedding ring shone like never before.
And then, about two and a half weeks after my city, New York, shut down restaurants, Broadway plays, and the largest public school system in the country, scientists switched to a different message—that everyone should wear a mask. This was a startling about-face. The initial advice, confidently delivered, had been not to wear a mask, unless you were a frontline health-care worker. The revision was largely based on a new hypothesis, that the coronavirus spread mostly through the air. (See where coronavirus casese are growing and declining in the U.S.)
Which was it, then? Surface transmission or aerosols? Should we be more afraid of contaminated elevator buttons or people breathing near us? Did scientists even know?
The shift in advice about masks spooked me, I must admit. Not because of the new advice itself—I was more than happy to wear a mask if the experts said I should—but because of the ominous meta message I sensed beneath it: Scientists were figuring this thing out on the fly. The most earnest pronouncements from the world’s smartest experts suddenly sounded like little more than well-meant educated guesses.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/11/to-end-this-pandemic-we-must-trust-science-feature/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=NatGeoPlus_20201024&rid=FB26C926963C5C9490D08EC70E179424
