When public health officials lie to us or just dispense bad information, who will listen?

Scientists play a dangerous game when they tailor factual statements to promote policy goals

Fauci admits that he lied to the public about facemarks, herd immunity

An expert cannot distort the message to the public because too many in the public can directly interrogate the source material. In this case, that means: models estimating herd immunity thresholds or the data underlying community mask use, drawing their own conclusions. If an expert seeks to distort their view of the science to further a behavioral change amongst the public, the risk of detection is high — at least by some in the public. As such, it runs the risk of immediate backlash and the ensuing loss of credibility. . . .

Once it is revealed that any individual has presented information selectively to get the listener to change their behavior — that person will forever be viewed through that lens: a calculating person. Is Fauci telling me this because the science supports it, because he believes it, or because he thinks hearing it might motivate a behavioral change on my part?

Personally, I don’t see a way back from this situation. The moment the public believes that you might be withholding, selectively presenting, or distorting information to get them to behave a certain way, they will immediately put your comments through a translator. He might be saying this because it’s what he believes, but what if he is saying it to change my behavior. What might that look like? What does he want my behavior to be, and what would it be if he told me something else? If that’s the case, what might his real feelings be … and on and on. The moment you enter this state in a relationship, there is no path back, it is over. Trust is irrevocably broken. A new spokesperson is needed.

But it’s not just Fauci, nor is this a new phenomenon.

In California, everything you eat or drink: baked goods, fruit, coffee, is said by authorities to cause cancer. What are you supposed to do with that information, other than ignore it? And the distrust and skepticism bred by public health authorities over the past decades now infects everything those people say.

Why should you believe anything the government or media says (well, about anything)? when states shut down restaurants and schools, say, when the positive test results that can be traced to those two sources amount to 1.4%, compared to 74% from private residences? Or when positive test results are referred to as “cases” or “infections”, when almost all are either false or asymptomatic, with zero chance of transmitting the virus?

It’s all lies.