“ ‘Wearing a mask is for smug liberals. Refusing to is for reckless Republicans.’ If only things were that simple; if only we could laugh off the debate as hyperbolic virtue signaling from both sides. Most likely by the time you read this, though, we will have tragically raced past the 100,000 mark in this country’s fatality count.” - John Ellis
“That the ‘grand social experiment’ of social distancing and government lockdown derived from a 14-year-old girl’s science project by no means implies that these are bad ideas. I say, give the girl, who would be in her twenties by now, the Nobel Prize for Medicine!” - Gene Veith
“In times of actual crisis, it can be easy to let awe and wonder fall by the wayside. Even in times of prosperity and plenty, our politicians and would-be planners are adept at finding urgency and necessity where neither truly exists.” - Acton
“The problem Etzioni says, isn’t the modeling team—which she believes is doing it’s best to ‘deliver results that match the data and produce ever-more-complex predictions about the future.’ Rather, it’s the way the information is communicated. Including ‘acknowledging your model’s limitations and uncertainties.’ Which she says ‘is never front and center in the IHME’s updates.’” - The Bulwark
“This is not an anti-science piece. It is rather a warning against scientism, the belief that science is the only path to knowledge because the material world is all that exists, and only science is equipped to discover knowledge of the material world.
“As these situations demonstrate, millions of people worldwide look more to religious authorities than health officials for guidance on how to behave and what to believe in a crisis. … But it is difficult to build partnerships between faith and health networks not accustomed to working together.
“These are just some examples of recent ‘prayer shaming,’ a term describing the ridicule toward people who offer their ‘thoughts and prayers’ for victims of tragedies. But they are also part of an old debate about the conflict between religion and science.
“A survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found 53 percent of Protestant pastors agree with the statement, ‘I believe global warming is real and man-made,’ including 34 percent who strongly agree.” - BPNews
Over the last several weeks I’ve encountered a range of negative views toward the models epidemiologists have been using in the struggle against COVID-19. Skepticism is a healthy thing. But rejecting models entirely isn’t skepticism. Latching onto fringe theories isn’t skepticism. Rejecting the flattening-the-curve strategy because it’s allegedly model-based isn’t skepticism either.
These responses are mostly misunderstandings of what models are and of how flattening-the-curve came to be.
