100%. For COVID and other topics there is an unfortunately common mindset of "the public isn't smart enough to sort out truth and make up their own mind" which

100%. For COVID and other topics there is an unfortunately common mindset of "the public isn't smart enough to sort out truth and make up their own mind" which is patently incorrect and dangerous, really, because the people that tend to espouse this are either the experts that want to be deferred to or people willing to defer to experts out of fear or laziness or inability to contend with ambiguity.