Posted on 09/01/2020 5:50:14 AM PDT by Heartlander
Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris recently gave their first joint interview to ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir and co-anchor Robin Roberts. I was struck by the following exchange:
MUIR: You talk about the science. If you’re sworn in come January, and, and we have coronavirus and the flu combining, which many scientists have said is a real possibility, would you be prepared to shut this country down again?
BIDEN: I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.
MUIR: So if the scientists say shut it down?
BIDEN: I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists.
Earlier in the interview Biden had spoken of “listening to the science” while arguing that if Trump had acted “just one week earlier, he would have saved over 37,000 lives.”
It’s a strange phrase — “the science” — when you’re talking about a novel disease. It’s not like there’s just one view on the virus among scientists. Especially not “just one week earlier” than Trump’s actions (presumably in mid-March). Let’s also set aside the fact that it was January 31 when Trump restricted incoming flights from China — a move Biden panned the next day as xenophobic.
Let’s instead focus on the final sentence: “I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists.” This statement reflects a faulty view of science and of a leader’s job.
The idea that we should always obey “the science” or “the scientists” is based on the underlying assumption that science represents a monolithic, infallible, unchanging, and unbiased view.
But that’s not what we see in history or in the present day. It was the scientific community that once gave eugenics an aura of respectability. That respectability waned when we learned how the Nazis applied this thinking to murder millions of Jews and other Untermensch. More recently, scientists told us about “junk DNA” — which turned out not to be junk.
In dealing with coronavirus, we were told not to wear face masks by the same scientists who later told us to wear them. A group of influential scientists published a study claiming that hydroxychloroquine was dangerous. Based on this study, the World Health Organization (WHO) paused its trials of the drug. But then the study was retracted and the trials were resumed.
The point is that scientists are neither infallible nor unbiased. Nor is science a static enterprise. As new learning occurs, the “settled” science changes accordingly.
But here’s what gets less notice: With something like a novel, once-in-a-century disease, it’s not as if the scientific community represents a uniform voice. Especially in the first few months. Intelligent people can look at the same new data and reach different conclusions. It’s important that this debate is not stifled. Because it’s precisely this competition of ideas that produces greater discovery and understanding. We should be skeptical of early claims of “scientific consensus.” Such claims can be used to weaponize one theory over others, and to muzzle dissenting voices, leaving us with the blind spots of group think.
Public policy is about more than science. Health concerns are important, but so are economic and social concerns. So are ethics, justice, and liberty. There are competing interests that need to be weighed. We elect leaders to weigh these competing interests, not to give carte blanche to any one voice. A President should chart the course that, overall, best supports the nation’s flourishing.
As Discovery Institute’s John West put it, scientists have tunnel vision. It’s a feature, not a bug. Scientists focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. This focused passion propels them to advance knowledge in a specific area. It’s great for publishing in research journals. But to what extent should it drive public policy?
If your goal is to reduce car accident fatalities, people should not drive on freeways. But that’s not a sacrifice most of us are willing to make. We should also wear seat belts. That is a small inconvenience we’re willing to endure.
A nationwide stay-at-home order would reduce the spread of coronavirus. But we now have good reason to believe that it would also destroy people’s livelihood, lead to increased rates of depression, more domestic violence, unreported child abuse, mental health problems among children, and the health risks that come from not treating other kinds of disease. Biden’s simplistic response suggests he’s not even willing to consider this kind of collateral damage.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is no Trump fan. But he called Biden’s “I would shut it down” comment a political blunder. Stephens wrote, “In the hierarchy of fears, what is Covid-19 to a healthy 35-year-old restaurateur next to the prospect of losing everything except a meager government check?” In other words, “staying at home to save lives” makes more sense to some people than to others. And that’s okay. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Stephens went on to say that “Voters won’t necessarily turn to Biden if they feel he will merely rubber-stamp the same set of policies that they wanted to avoid in the first place. Democracies elect leaders to lead, not defer; to occasionally buck conventional wisdom, not parrot it.”
That’s right. We don’t elect presidents to give away the leadership of the country to a small group of narrowly focused, unelected, and unaccountable scientists. Biden’s flippant remark displayed a naïve view of science and leadership.
Dr. Alex Chediak (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) is a professor and the author of Thriving at College (Tyndale House, 2011), a roadmap for how students can best navigate the challenges of their college years. His latest book is Beating the College Debt Trap. Learn more about him at www.alexchediak.com or follow him on Twitter (@chediak).
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There are plenty of scientists who think the shutdown was wrong, masks are useless, and social distancing is a joke. Can we listen to them? Or is their Narrative just wrong?
-Fauxi 2005. NIH Scientists Conceal Millions in Royalties for Experimental Treatments
-Fauxi’s 15 deadly mistakes and contradictions
-Fauxi and Birx used fraudulent Imperial College model to urge shut down
-Modeler had to resign in disgrace
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/professor-lockdown-modeler-resigns-in-disgrace/
-Fauxi later reverses and says we can’t rely on models
https://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2020/04/03/fauci-we-cant-really-rely-on-models/ ;
-Fauxi has numerous conflicts of interest
https://newswithviews.com/dr-fauci-and-dr-birx-have-a-record-of-medical-failure/
-Fauxi has long history of fraud
http://www.americanfreedomunion.com/dr-faucis-long-criminal-history/
https://www.coreysdigs.com/law-order/when-the-masks-went-on-their-masks-came-off/
-Fauxi fired researcher that exposed his vaccines were spreading chronic diseases
-Fauxi is Hillary loyalist
-Fauxi promised AIDS Vaccine and has yet to deliver
https://newswithviews.com/dr-fauci-and-dr-birx-have-a-record-of-medical-failure/
-Scarf Queen falsified data on HIV research
https://truepundit.com/dod-leak-feds-investigated-birx-fabricated-falsified-hiv-aids-vaccine-trials/
- Fauxi knew hydroxyxhloroquine could both cure and prevent corona viruses in 2005. Passive aggressive on HCQ in 2020. Intentional?
-”Fauxi” praised use of hydroxychloroquine in 2013 to treat the MERS corona virus. Risky drug in 2020?
COVER UP: Fauci Approved Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine 15 Years Ago to Cure Coronaviruses; “Nobody Needed to Die” – True Pundit
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232869/
-Fauxi funded research grants to Wuhan lab to fund risky virus research that was illegal in the U.S.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/04/why-us-outsourced-bat-virus-research-to-wuhan/
-Fauxi in 2017: President Trump Will Be Challenged By a “Surprise Global Disease Outbreak”. What did he know?
-Despite his 2017 prediction, Fauxi unprepared for 2020 pandemic. By design?
-In Jan 2020 interview, he said, “... this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.” - intentional?
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/03/flashback-fauci-coronavirus-us-threat-trump/
-Fauxi caught on video flip flopping on severity of the virus
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=59a0uGIFZGY
-Fauxi said masks do not work.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preventing-coronavirus-facemask-60-minutes-2020-03-08/
-Fauxi in February said malls, gyms and movie theaters were OK. Make us more vulnerable?
-Fauxi in March said Americans cruises were OK. Catch us with guard down?
-Fauci on CNN Easter Sunday suggested President Trump should have shut down the country in February
-Fauxi exaggerated need for Hospital beds
-Fauxi is front man for Big Pharma, pushing expensive new drugs that require tests and trials rather than inexpensive proven cures like HCQ+zinc+zpack that have been around for decades. More time to let the virus spread?
-Fauxi delaying tests of vaccines and cures
-Fauxi agenda is mandated vaccines to benefit Big Pharma and Bill Gates.
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/8/anthony-fauci-sets-stage-mandatory-vaccine/
-Fauxi 100% wrong with exaggerated models
-Fauxi longtime relationship with corrupt WHO director, a communist-globalist with terrorist ties, who covers for the CCP
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/fauci-who-head-really-outstanding-person
-Fauxi endorses Tinder hookups
https://nypost.com/2020/04/15/fauci-endorses-tinder-hookups-with-a-caveat/
-Fauxi plotted ‘Global Vaccine Action Plan’ with depopulation advocate Bill Gates, pushing panic and doubts about HCQ. Big Pharma $$$s.
- Fauxi, May 2020 told National Geographic the virus did not originate in Chinese Lab.
-Fauxi wrong again on State of Georgia reopening
-Dr Birx now believes CDC inflating death numbers by as much as 25%. distancing herself?
-First Case in US Treated with Remdesivir was January – Two Weeks Later China Was Mass Producing the Drug – The Firm Gilead Sciences and Dr. Fauci Are In the Middle
Fauxi’s own NIH - Breakthrough: Chloroquine Phosphate Has Shown Apparent Efficacy in Treatment of COVID-19 Associated Pneumonia in Clinical Studies
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32074
https://mobile.twitter.com/99freemind/status/1243171622661521409/photo/2
Two Fauxi mistakes led to nationwide Lockdown
https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-two-mistakes-that-led-to-a-national-lockdown_3349318.html
Fauci and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims
Fauxi ties to Deep State, Soros, Gates, Clintons
Fauci caught in lie about inflammatory condition in children (May 2020)
Did Anthony Fauci’s promotion of dangerous research help create the COVID-19 pandemic?
Fauxi takes off face mask when cameras are off
https://www.bitchute.com/video/8PutjswgshE4
Fauci Files: Celebrated doc’s career dotted with ethics, safety controversies inside NIH
All The Times Dr Fauci Was Wrong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkuzZAZ7
Fauci tells the NFL they can’t play in the fall.
But next week he is throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals opener.
Is Fauci corrupt to the core?
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/06/21/tony-fauci-is-corrupt/
Fauci Daughter Is Software Engineer for Twitter
https://nationalfile.com/faucis-daughter-ali-fauci-is-a-software-engineer-for-twitter
Fauci is not concerned with safety of vaccine
Trump has just got to get out there and declare the shutdown over. Done. Finished. And all of the governors’ insane unconstitutional acts are over too.
There’s plenty of “science” to back him up in doing this. He made a grave mistake by shutting down the first time, at least beyond the two weeks, and by letting Fauci take over. Fauci’s politically motivated and scientifically unsustainable “science” has been shown to be a lie. It’s time to say it’s over now.
I see nothing to disagree with in your post.
If the governors will not lift the restrictions and rescind the idiotic mask mandates, it needs to be done FOR them. If the individual cities’ and towns’ mayor, City Councils, etc. refuse to comply, the governor needs to assert executive authority. Some people will bitch about it. Too bad.
I understand what you are saying, but if Trump does that, he will be accused of being a dictator, which is why he allowed the governors to do their own things.
If Trump declares this “emergency” over, they will have no excuse for their un-Constitutional acts and ruling by edict, which probably is not even permitted in their state consitutions.
Federalism is one thing, but virtual secession, with the states each going their own way, even in violation of the Constitution, is another. The only reason they’re not seceding outright is that they want to keep Federal money flowing. And that’s something else he can do: cut off the money.
Hopefully, he won’t give them any money for rebuilding the cities that they allowed to be destroyed by permitting these riots, and he shouldn’t give money to states that won’t open up and let their economies start moving again. This will certainly also result in a lot of popular pressure on the governors to quit playing politics and open their states again. And to mayors, as well, because some of them are feeling so empowered by this “state of emergency” that they are defying more open state policies and issuing paralyzing edicts for their cities. If there’s no more emergency, there’s no more “emergency powers” like this.
All good points.
“If your goal is to reduce car accident fatalities, people should not drive on freeways”
I think that is BS.
To reduce fatalities one should drive only on rural freeways.
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