“ If you only know one thing, you keep your mouth shut until you know more. ”

So hiding and covering up information is the way you think scientists should build trust, rather than being open and also clear about the limitations?

The lack of trust has nothing to do with scientists publishing data and everything to do with hucksters who misinterpret or lie about it to spread anti-vaccine panic or “government control” conspiracy theories.

The lack of trust in these situations seems to come more from how many people perceive the world of science. Many people seem to think once science has an answer it can't be wrong, and it's difficult to change, when it's more or less the complete opposite. That's what we've been taught in school. No one has been taught about how many studies turned out wrong or are easily misleading, or how to study papers and make research.

I blame education for that, for it doesn't properly teach you how to understand science. Science is taught like a Bible, when it should be taught as something people created and it's error prone.

Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

> And if the thing you know isn't actually known

Who do you want to be the arbiter that gatekeeps this information and decides the science is strong enough that you “actually know”?

And that's why academics shouldn't be the face of policy making. But I guess they liked the spotight too much to step out of it.