The fact is though, people are willing to accept being lied to by people they otherwise view favourably. For example a lot of the people decrying Fauci as a liar support Trump, who at the beginning of the pandemic was telling a journalist in private how the coronavirus was deadly and more dangerous than the worst flus, but in public at the same time was saying it was a hoax and nothing to worry about, and obstructing efforts to prepare for it.

People will choose the truths they care about. That’s why integrity in public life is so important. I don’t think it can be an absolute in practice, politicians, even scientists are only human. But there must be a cost to knowingly deceiving the public, and there must be contrition, it can never be considered an acceptable practice. It can never be good enough to just point to an ideological opponent and say, well, they do it too. That’s not an argument.