By Jonathan Imbody - - Tuesday, March 22, 2022
By now, many Americans have had it with medical experts, and for good reason.
Too many once-trusted doctors have lied, propagandized and trampled constitutional principles in their pronouncements and mandates.
We now know that the coercive COVID-19 shutdowns and mandates urged by medical experts have had the unintended but predictable consequences of retarding our children’s learning, increasing mental health crises, hamstringing the economy, hampering our military preparedness, dividing the citizenry and much more.
Unless we learn from this pandemic crucial lessons about medical experts, we are bound to repeat the same tragic mistakes.
Many Americans, schooled in the dubious doctrine that scientists — unlike every other human being — somehow transcend personal bias, expect scientists to deliver objective, evidence-driven advice bereft of personal or political ambition.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci has single-handedly destroyed that naive notion.
When the airborne pandemic struck, Dr. Fauci proclaimed on “60 Minutes,” “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
When unprotected ordinary citizens started dying in droves, Dr. Fauci and his medical colleagues abruptly reversed the message to, “You must wear a mask — or else!” The ensuing senseless shutdowns and moronic mandates for masks and vaccines cost citizens their jobs, soldiers their service and children their education.
As to theories that the virus outbreak originated in the Wuhan lab in China and with engineered elements, Dr. Fauci aggressively sought to suppress that potentially damning thesis, insisting that the scientific evidence “is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.” Emails uncovered since then revealed that Dr. Fauci and NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins conspired with fellow scientists to squash the theory, which now is regarded by many experts as highly plausible.
As to “gain of function” research that could have weaponized lethal novel coronaviruses, Dr. Fauci testified to Congress in May and July of 2021 that no such thing ever happened under his watch. But by October, uncovered documents emerged that proved to many observers that NIAID indeed had funded what is essentially gain of function research and that Dr. Fauci had lied to Congress.
Faced in a Senate hearing with charges of his duplicity and overweening abuse of scientific authority, Dr. Fauci’s incredible hubris pounded what should be the last nail in the coffin of scientist idolatry.
He warned, “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous.”
The real danger lies in the failure to recognize that scientists like Dr. Fauci are capable of bias, deception and power-seeking. Scientists are too often driven by ego, power, funding and the approval of their peers.
Doctors, in particular, are prone to comparing themselves to their peers and craving official approval. Beginning with intense competition to get into med school, followed by the risk of criticism in residency and continuing into the credentialing of their professional practices, they often crave stamps of approval and accolades that reinforce and protect their reputation and self-perception.
Doctors also are trained narrowly in the physical functioning and treatment of the body. They memorize information, learn about processes, follow protocols and conform to academies and institutions.
Trained in the physical sciences, doctors typically know little of public policy, economics, education, constitutional rights and individual liberties. Doctors often fail to see the big picture because they are inclined and trained to focus on the little picture.
To grant to medical experts sweeping public policy power that impacts every aspect of American life is simply inane.
So, where does all this disenchantment leave us? Can we not even trust our institutions?
No. We should recognize that every institution, medical or otherwise, is a collection of flawed human beings. As did our nation’s founders, we should recognize that the inherent flaws in every individual are exacerbated by power.
The only antidote for the disease of power addiction and abuse is to limit it.
Distribute political power among many instead of among few. Do not cede political power to unelected medical experts. Seek out and protect whistleblowers. Demand proof of the need for funding and investigate the use of funding. In many cases, discerning scientific fact from propaganda begins with simply following the money.
Above all, remember that while scientific evidence may be inherently objective, scientists are not.
• Jonathan Imbody is a public policy consultant at FaithSteps.Net and has several decades of experience in federal health policy.
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