Why it isn’t trusted today:
The Reuters/Oxford Trust in Journalism project ranked the United States last among 46 countries for public trust in media. Everyone over 40 understands why: There is no longer even a veneer of impartiality in mainstream media. The ruthless logic of the digital age (even for print media) is that if you want someone to pay upfront for your content, you must cater to their preconceptions. Thus, most of the science content the public sees is either from a source they know is biased in other coverage or is free content on social media with even less accountability. There is plenty of good science writing out there, starting with journals such as Science and Nature; the problem is the funding model, which understandably puts most quality science news coverage behind paywalls. The online “free” funding model is payment by the click, not by accuracy, and you get what you pay for.
This reflects a broader problem that has only become more evident in the COVID-19 era. When the media reduces tentative hypotheses to simplified yes/no results, people notice if the answer changes (When are masks necessary? Do I need to sterilize grocery bags? Could COVID-19 have come from a lab?). This reduction also happens for financial or political gain, and often with at least acquiescence by scientists (fame, grants, and awards are enticing). The “science is settled” trope is stretched much too far (and not just with COVID), and it costs credibility.
Warren S. Warren, “Earning the public’s trust” at Science Advances (March 9, 2022)
And even the “good” science journals featured articles falling all over themselves to pretend that the pandemic had nothing to do with gain-of-function research at the Level 4 virus lab in upcountry Wuhan, China — research that was, we are told, forbidden in the United States.
We haven’t even begun with a serious reckoning of all that happened but here is a glimmer of hope: “Quebec’s ‘Punitive’ Pandemic Response Did Not Effectively Curb COVID-19 Spread, Report Finds”
But lockdowns and curfews didn’t need to affect the spread of COVID, did they? They only needed to apprise people of the penalties for not Trusting “the Science!”, wholly irrespective of evidence.
Here are links to “We’re not your lab rats any more.” A stroll through the beginning of the collapse of the “science-driven” COVID Crazy.