During the early days of the pandemic I has in a heated discussion on social media about face masks with other scientists (private group of 20k scientists). I

During the early days of the pandemic I has in a heated discussion on social media about face masks with other scientists (private group of 20k scientists). I was in favor of using face masks. Most of the comments were by other scientists against using face masks. Two days later the Surgeon General of the US turns around and openly on YouTube asks for the general population to use face masks. Until this days some people are still using face masks. Appealing to authority is exactly the opposite of what science stands for. Science denial is a self inflicted wound.