@statementstate
I want to back what @rockly is saying. The basic tenet of science is : scientific consensus.
“Scientific consensus is the generally held judgment, position, and opinion of the majority or the supermajority of scientists in a particular field of study at any particular time.[1][2]
Consensus is achieved through scholarly communication at conferences, the publication process, replication of reproducible results by others, scholarly debate,[3][4][5][6] and peer review.”
And that just applies to every scientific theory : whether you send a rocket to the moon, if you are treating cancer patients etc etc.
Thats not to say it is rigid and never changes, it does. IF sufficient, robust and thoroughly peer reviewed evidence became available to contradict the current consensus then - whatever you are claiming - would become the new consensus. And that just ain’t happening!
If decisions were made in terms of public health based on what 3% of doctors were saying, over 97% - can you see how that simply doesn’t make sense or is highly likely to be far more dangerous?
You cannot make global health decisions on clams made by 3% of doctors. Except I imagine it’s even less than that…
Even if you subscribe to the ‘Big Pharma’ theory and think it’s all monetised/for profit/we are being duped - when you look at the career records of the apparently ‘hero doctors who are telling the “truth”’ - they tend to have FAR more controversial backgrounds than anyone else who is actual going through the proper/regulated scientific channels. E.g Yeadon made millions through Ziarco and was struck off by serveral biomed companies for being at odds with their practices prior to his “claims”.
There is a very interesting book by Jay Van Beval. It’s about the power of your beliefs/viewpoints and he compares the anti vaxx stance to a cult like belief. An example he gives is of a group who gathered in a church who believed the world would end at a particular time. When that time passed, the group were all beginning to wonder what was happening. Instead of facing the embarrassment of being wrong/or breaking the groups firmly held belief : the group leader told them all she’d be given a message. The message being that : because they had all believed, they had - in fact - saved the world. And they unanimously took that to be the new truth.
Social media allows for echo chambers, and cult like anti-science ideas to form. And while I’d generally believe in free speech - in the middle of a pandemic - when people’s lives are at risk - I think they can cause an extraordinary amount of harm.