Читать книгу The Case for Democracy in the COVID-19 Pandemic - David Seedhouse Dr. - Страница 14

 Certainty (A) and Uncertainty (B)

The most striking general feature of my research into the pandemic is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to gain a clear view of what is happening. Government and health organisation predictions and announcements change daily: the World Health Organisation (WHO), for example, said for months that there was no evidence that healthy people should wear facemasks, and then changed that advice on June 6th. New information emerges in a bewildering stream, much of it in fragments posted by news-media searching for the latest story. Drawing watertight conclusions from the cascade of words and data is impossible even for ‘the experts'.

It doesn't matter which field their expertise is in. When one ‘expert’ makes an assertion, the only certainty is that a different expert will disagree. In striking contrast to this ambiguity, and despite published minutes of their own meetings displaying enormous doubt, scientists and politicians have made drastic consensus decisions ‘in the public interest'. One might say that this is their role, but decisions to act so decisively on barely any evidence require extensive scrutiny.