I've heard colleagues say that the solution to what's happening to American science is for scientists to communicate the value of science better. That's false. Trump is doing a lot of unpopular things, including destroying the science enterprise. What's happening is not our fault.
Most people believe in the values of democracy, but those values are being assaulted by this administration every day. 1/2
My experience of the 2020 pandemic was an immense amount of quality science being released and discussed by researchers and clinicians, but only a tiny fraction of the media who were skilled or bothered to present that with any degree of fidelity to their audiences.
The entire framing of "scientists need to communicate better" falls over when we look at who's making an effort to listen.
Mark Sumner, @Devilstower, formerly at DailyKos.com, currently writing at Uncharted Blue, was one those who did not just a competent job, but an outstanding job of conveying the complexity of the shifting epidemiological understanding of COVID-19.
Mark gave me confidence that I knew as much as could be known as the pandemic progressed.
David Ho
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Grassroots Joe