>What social costs?

this would be a good question to ask the experts you are accusing of dishonesty, so they have the opportunity to come up with a similarly defensive response based on equally plausible denials

take your example of Fauci for example - he's admitted mistakes, and has not lost the trust of most Americans like your premise claims (save for a minority who thinks mistakes, something all humans commit, are a sign of weakness).

so already we know the "social costs" for him that you're talking about as an example, are far overblown

indeed, most Americans understand the trade-offs that we made during the pandemic based on what we knew for sure at the time (not what internet people were claiming without trustworthy, peer-reviewed studies).