In this Wall Street Journal article on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) task force looking into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, this passage stands out. After calling out several different possibilities for the origins of the virus (from a wild animal, a leak from a research facility, spread from frozen food–a scenario being promoted by the Chinese authorities) there’s this:
Some scientists said they understood why the WHO is still considering the frozen-food scenario despite considering it unlikely. “I think the one thing that is really lost in all of this is that the entire investigation can’t be separated from political considerations,†said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security.
What this highlights is that we can’t really “trust the experts”. They are human and as such everything they say is said with mixed motives.
People continue to hope for philosopher-kings but there are none. Pretending that ordinary fallible, self-seeking, self-promoting humans are philosopher-kings is actually the worse approach. What we should be doing is relying on experts for their genuine expertise, recognize the limits of that expertise, and make prudent judgments. I trust Paul Krugman when he’s remarking on patterns of international trade. I ignore his political judgments and I take his opinions on fiscal policy with a grain of salt. It’s not a binary choice—trust the expert vs. ignore the experts.
The problems arise when the political considerations so overwhelm professional expertise that we can no longer separate the two. Has the WHO reached that point?
People took the claims about it being manufactured as a bioweapon seriously and investigated that possibility. Those claims were mostly politically motivated. I think politics will always drive what is investigated and sometimes even influence results. In the case of WHO they get paid by their member nations. They cannot enter a country without its permission. Given those constraints they will always be at the mercy of member countries.
Steve
Very much to my point.