>Triage isn’t politics. You can disagree but I think calling it playing politics is pretty absurd. You would call it "giving most accurate information" which i

>Triage isn’t politics. You can disagree but I think calling it playing politics is pretty absurd. You would call it "giving most accurate information" which is technically true but in a legalese sense. Not in a building trust with society sense. >Nothing about the wuhan lab origin is particularly relevant or important as far as the issues of treatment go. I agree this is an entirely political issue, but it is also divorced from what has become politicized as far as COVID treatment and vaccines. It's relevant to the issue of being a trustworthy authority figure. The response of the government/media was to censor this narrative while Fauci was internally exchanging emails about it. Not only did it set a new precedent but it was for questionable reasons because like you say they are orthogonal issues from perspective of finding scientific solutions. In other words they squandered the trust of the people for completely political reasons. >There have always been people skeptical of the government. There have always been antivax people. But the flames that are fanning these, especially now are explicitly being done so by political elements for their own personal political gain. We are passed that point. We are at a point where many bureaucrats feel justified operating in "post-truth" worldviews. They have gone from reacting to bad faith actors to themselves being part of the systemic problem. >Does rejecting (especially) vaccines and masks in spite of the quantifiable data about their efficacy make sense? No. In the context of both parties using the pandemic as a wedge issue for their own causes. In the context of all the doubt medical institutions have generated for themselves. It's not a surprising outcome on the social level.