Fleishman and Pons were met with the same derision as that feller that said the earth was a sphere.
A sphere...
Wasn’t the center of our solar system...
It’s been almost exactly 32 years ago. How about a progress report.
When their initial report came out I was working as an engineer along with many dozens of others. I can assure you that their claims were evaluated consistent with their good reputations.
The problem is and always has been the inability to reproduce their results. I see that Andrea Rossi still claims, after all these years, to have products to sell based on similar "technology". I am not aware of anybody getting benefit from such products.
The burden of proof in scientific matters does not shift to the general public simply based on unreproducible claims. It remains with those who make the claims.