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Re:I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case by saurik on Sunday September 12, 2021 @04:51PM (#28504803)
> You are basically asking that our agencies be 100% correct the first time and be perfect predictors of the future.

That isn't how I read this comment at all :/.

First off, the person isn't even saying not to trust scientists at all, much less because they are wrong: in each case the idea was that they are acting in their best understanding of what the effect of a certain kind of intervention will be; the comment isn't blaming scientists for getting something wrong or failing to predict the future: it explicitly even seems to agree with each intervention as being a sensible thing to do given the information at the time and the risk/benefit analysis.

And then secondly, the issue of someone overstating their confidence on purpose and knowingly is very different from someone misunderstanding something and later realizing they were wrong. "I think this is our best course of action to mitigate the impact" is an honest thing to say. But people seem to want to hear "this will solve the problem fully". People seem to not want to deal with "I realize this might not help much, but it certainly won't hurt: let's try it and see how effective it is" (another honest thing to say), but instead want to hear "trust me: you need to do this as I know it is going to work".

I was--and am!--fully willing to do things that are only going to mitigate the impact, whether to myself or to others, and I am willing to do it even on reasoning as flimsy as "it is unlikely to hurt". But I feel like I am in a vast minority, and so everyone instead is motivated to overstate their confidence and overstate their intended result in the hope of getting more compliance, which is why we have people who don't just feel "scientists and doctors are trying their best to work in our best interests, and this is our best hope as of today" but help get on the bandwagon of "if you disagree with how effective this is going to be you are an idiot who is anti-science and you are part of the problem in our attempts to get compliance".

Re:I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case by mcguire on Sunday September 12, 2021 @07:12PM (#28505989)
The problem there is that the experts did say, "I think this is our best course of action to mitigate the impact," but people heard "this will solve the problem fully" and then decided that all science is a lie.
Re:I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case by nemothekid on Sunday September 12, 2021 @05:00PM (#28504879)
I truly do not understand what distinction you are trying to make and your interoperation seems to be way less charitable than I gave.

Your problem is, as I understand it, is you understand that they can be wrong, but they didn't use your preferred language? Are you asking the USG to personally message to 300MM Americans?

Do you get mad at your doctor for being wrong sometimes for the same reason?