Quote Originally Posted by Alan View Post
If only a fairly high percentage of conspiracy theories during the height of Covid hadn't turned out to be true the general public might have a greater degree of trust in science. If we can learn something from that experience and separate out the political influence we could probably respect science again.
I suspect your version of political influence differences from mine, but it was not one sided. What comes to my mind is when Donald recommended everyone go out to church on Easter Sunday before there were vaccines or other effective precautions and recommended bizarre chemical preparations as remedy like the injection of cleaning disinfectants. A lot of people died because of disinformation contrary to mainstream science, especially around the refusal to get vaccinated. Masks and lockdowns could be up for debate, but [possibly the best they could come up with at the time and a learning experience.