Settled-science is a misnomer

 Fox Business:

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Silencing debate, keeping tabs on private citizens, and creating lists of individuals who dare to disagree with the government? These tactics are better left to totalitarian regimes.

The White House and the Big Tech platforms have provided the same justifications for their censorship – that the content they seek to block is misinformation, and it deviates from the settled science on COVID.

The late author and columnist Charles Krauthammer once observed the greatest drawback of "settled science." "There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge."

That anti-scientific approach has been on full display this year, with elected officials and government bureaucrats preferring COVID dogma to the scientific process that invites debate and re-evaluation. The "settled science" of 2020 now looks quaint in 2021, as we have gained greater understanding of everything from transmission to treatments to risk factors.

Last year, the settled science said that children should not be in schools. In 2021, that misguided "settled science" has been replaced with better science. Now we have numerous studies documenting the huge learning loss, especially for younger children, from having spent a year in virtual classes.

The settled science of 2020 said 6-feet of separation was the key to minimizing the spread. It turns out that the 6-foot guideline was based less in science than we had thought, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now says three feet is sufficient. Science changes.

One of the most important areas of debate in 2020 was the effectiveness of the state lockdowns. Florida’s limited lockdown last year was derided by the mainstream media, while New York’s and Michigan’s harsh lockdowns were held up as examples for the country to follow. But today, with the advantage of hindsight, we can understand that Governor DeSantis’ approach in Florida was vastly superior to the economically devastating lockdowns in New York and elsewhere, which produced little noticeable effect on COVID transmission.
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There are other examples where the censors of information about Covid have been wrong.  A vigorous debate about issues is the best way to get to the truth. 

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