When experts change their minds

 I read an article soon after the pandemic started advising people to trust the medical experts even when they sometimes were inconsistent.  The article said many people found it hard to put faith in experts who said one thing one month but had different advice the following month.  People threw up their hands and wondered why they should believe anything these so-called experts said.

The article pointed out that scientists and medical professionals cannot know everything immediately.  The important thing is to use rigorous observation and experimentation, correct errors, and adjust conclusions.  When the pandemic started far more patients were put on ventilators than later; physicians found that ventilators often made conditions worse.  We obviously didn’t know about “long-haulers” or “brain fog” when the pandemic started.  Doctors didn’t have a clear idea of how the droplets spread outside; now we have found that people who are outside are relatively safe.  

We do know that masks work and that vaccines work.  That has not changed.  The polio and smallpox vaccines also worked.  Thank goodness when we were eliminating smallpox and polio, we didn’t have as many stupid people as we do now.