It took a while for the author to move from a very abstact concept to the concrete example, and that was Covid-19 (and only Covid-19). However, there's also a

It took a while for the author to move from a very abstact concept to the concrete example, and that was Covid-19 (and only Covid-19). However, there's also a good argument that the scientific and medical experts flubbed certain aspects of the global response and investigation of the pandemic in many regards. Note also that failures and errors stand out more than successes do, that's just a common human social phenomenon. These problems can be plausibly grouped into (1) investigation of the origin, (2) effectiveness of masking, and (3) effectiveness of the vaccines. With respect to the origin, it's plausible that the Wuhan lab (funded in part by the US government via Ecohealth alliance) was the point origin of the pandemic. The natural zoonotic origin theory, however, was trumpted by the experts for months as the only possible explanation, and critics were silenced and targeted by the establishment media and leading academics in the field. Currently, lab leak theories are of three types: (a) the lab collected a wild-type virus from a remote region (southern China/border perhaps) and it escaped from the lab, (b) the lab cultivated that virus in bats and genetically modified mice, which increased its virulence via serial passage, and then it escaped, and (c) the lab modified the viral genome directly by inserting sequences into the cell-binding domain (the furin issue) using a CRISPR strategy (developed in the USA some years previously) which allowed it to jump easily to humans. Most rational people disregard claims that this was some deliberate release. Refusal to investigate all this immediately was a major failure of the scientific establishment. See the book 'Viral' by Ridley & Chan for a comprehensive discussion. With respect to masking, there was a lot of contradictory messaging along with a lack of any convincing studies on effectiveness, plus a lot of politicization of the issue. The most solid conclusion is that people infected with respiratory pathogens should wear masks to prevent infecting others. Note that for many years, this has been the social norm in, for example, Japan. Note also that handwashing is just as important for stopping transmission, but for some reason that never became a political 'red-vs-blue' flashpoint. Finally, the effectiveness of the vaccines was oversold. The rapid rise of mutations was certainly a confounding factor (i.e. the vaccines may have been more effective against initial strains), but they were promoted as polio/smallpox/MMR type vaccines, i.e. once vaccinated chances of getting infected and spreading the disease were supposed to be essentially zero. It turns out the vaccines are more like flu shots, only partially effective. Vaccinated people can be asymptomatic carriers and spreaders of Covid-19. This created quite a bit of distrust, and may have impacted the other issue, claims about prevalence and severity of side effects of vaccination (smallpox vaccine had more severe side effects, but was also much more effective, so...). There's also many suspicions about the profit motive of the vaccine manufacturers, particularly with respect to pushing the boosters and the necessity of vaccinating the under-18 and young-adult population. Additionally, the effectiveness of post-infection 'natural immunity' was never really examined in the context of the necessity of vaccination for such individuals. The scientific and medical response to Covid wasn't all bad, of course, people did a lot of hard work in an effort to stop it, but these failures and errors certainly stand out. There was a kind of paternalistic flavor to the public messaging as well, as if people were too stupid to handle the facts and complexities, which led to distrust. Also the 'stay in your lane' theme of this article is a bit offbase, you don't need to be a working expert in immunology and virology to be capable of seeing these problems (my working academic background is in microbiology and molecular biology, for example).