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I think you are right about independent scientists in some cases having a better view of the pandemic on the ground. At the same time it's not clear independen

I think you are right about independent scientists in some cases having a better view of the pandemic on the ground. At the same time it's not clear independent health authorities are the solution. The problem we're facing with reopening is that we have to balance health outcomes with economic trade-offs to create a solution that maximizes both. In theory that's what we pay politicians to do, especially in democracies.

Gibbon1 6y ago
I think one thing that happened is a total break down between policy makers and institutional scientists. Institutional scientists simply will not speculate publicly. Normally they work with executive branches and political leaders to formulate a coherent policy. Non institutional scientists on the other hand were free to say what they believed was prudent. In the west over the last 40 years there has been a complete breakdown in the ability of governments to formulate coherent policy followed by action.