Scientists Need to Admit What They Got Wrong About Covid

What exactly is it scientists aren't admitting? Is there some big failure that we're not aware of? For that matter, is there some mistake (big or small) that hasn't already become a rhetorical hammer to say "Scientists got this wrong therefore my crack theory is correct"?

As far as I can tell, the answer comes about halfway through the article: "Less than a year later, I must admit, at the expense of my ego, I was wrong." Is there anything to this article than looking for back pats for having done the right thing?

I mean, yes, you're a good cat and a pretty cat. Props. Well done.

But was anybody under the impression that epidemiologists and public health experts and virologists and basically everybody weren't about to spend the next decade dissecting everything that happened over the last 18 months?

Or are we looking for some specific public self-flagellation? To what end? Will it actually increase the public confidence in science?

This is an interesting take on the problems with science communication. I also think that saying "I/We were wrong" is likely to be used to ignore science. IMHO the message should be "We have new information that changes our understanding". One major issue is not only the perception of the honesty and humility of science but the problem that many of the people who are likely deny that science changes are ripe with confirmation bias and belief perseverance. There should be more research done on those two topics to learn how to minimize the negative consequences those two phenomena have on the world.

Here's the thing. People who respect science will understand its imperfections and iterative processes, how evidence really works and how "truth" is hard to come by.

The people that want these sorts of apologies are the ones that are looking for reasons to deny science. Those sorts of people simply never change, and will always look for reasons to disregard it.

So no. This wouldn't solve anything. It'd just make things worse.

Nonsense. People need to admit they didn't pay attention in High School, and don't understand disease and infection. They then need to educate themselves, or place some trust in those that have been educated.

Seems like more than a few people need to understand the scientific method.