So much censorship occurred that the Hoover Institution’s Victor Davis Hanson declared that we are witnessing the death of science:
The scientific method used to govern much of popular American thinking.
In empirical fashion, scientists advised us to examine evidence and data, and then by induction come to rational hypotheses. The enemies of “science” were politics, superstition, bias and deduction.
Yet we are now returning to our version of medieval alchemy and astrology in rejecting a millennium of the scientific method.
The Lancet took a significant hit to its credibility early in the pandemic. In the zeal to demonize hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), the journal published a paper from a group named Surgisphere after an incredibly fast peer review. The paper made outlandish claims about the data set the group used and the outcomes for patients taking the medication for COVID-19. Other researchers debunked the claims days after the paper was published, forcing The Lancet to retract it.
The Trump-deranged corporate media reported the paper widely, and agencies canceled studies investigating HCQ. Despite being proven safe and effective over decades of use, if you ask many Americans, they will probably still say HCQ causes heart problems and vision problems. The side effects, even after long-term use of HCQ, are exceptionally rare. But the damage done by this fake study is enormous.
You cannot have science in a culture which does not value the truth.