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Great point. Perhaps the idea is that neither you nor the avg doc can conclude much from reading 10 studies. Therefore, defer to the experts?

As to why the COVID situation is different, presumably because prostate cancer screening affects only you (and perhaps your family in the case of a true/false positive/negative diagnosis), and COVID represents a threat to everyone around you, and everyone around them, etc.

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I wasn't clear. Most of the time, as with prostrate screenings, one of the following is true:

- There is no expert consensus (on treatments, etiology, etc.).

- Consensus exists, but the level of consensus is overstated.

- There is broad consensus, but with relatively low confidence.

A generalized public health threat like a pandemic doesn't change the epistemological calculus, nor the sociology of knowledge.

There is a fourth option:

- there a consensus, it is broad and it has good experimental support and high confidence

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