Thank you thank you for taking the time to write this! I share your frustrations as a virologist studying SC2 and trying to navigate social media. The last two years I’ve had a PSYOP war with myself over a desire to educate the public and fight the bs or just stay quiet and focus on my science because I’ll get attacked and won’t change their mind anyway.
It is certainly a minefield and I totally get why you are torn. In the end, we want scientists to do and focus on research, not task them with debunking online conspiracies just because their expertise falls into a controversy; and worse, then abandon them to fight for themselves when the troll armies come to harass them. Also, there is no real debate about uncertainty or alternative theory, it is a zergfest of who gets to the most attention, and nuance or knowledge does not do the trick for scientists, the opposite actually. That's why I felt very strongly at least somebody like me should do some 'counterspeech' to the prevailing online narratives. Thank you for reading and the kind words!
Thank you for writing this. Its telling that the lab leak (LL) origin of COVID-19 is almost exclusively argued within the Twitterverse while a zoonotic origin is consistently tested in the scientific literature. Of course, to the LLs, that just means that the scientific literature is corrupt or biased, or whatever non-evidence based argument they can put forward.
Thank you thank you for taking the time to write this! I share your frustrations as a virologist studying SC2 and trying to navigate social media. The last two years I’ve had a PSYOP war with myself over a desire to educate the public and fight the bs or just stay quiet and focus on my science because I’ll get attacked and won’t change their mind anyway.
It is certainly a minefield and I totally get why you are torn. In the end, we want scientists to do and focus on research, not task them with debunking online conspiracies just because their expertise falls into a controversy; and worse, then abandon them to fight for themselves when the troll armies come to harass them. Also, there is no real debate about uncertainty or alternative theory, it is a zergfest of who gets to the most attention, and nuance or knowledge does not do the trick for scientists, the opposite actually. That's why I felt very strongly at least somebody like me should do some 'counterspeech' to the prevailing online narratives. Thank you for reading and the kind words!
Thank you for writing this. Its telling that the lab leak (LL) origin of COVID-19 is almost exclusively argued within the Twitterverse while a zoonotic origin is consistently tested in the scientific literature. Of course, to the LLs, that just means that the scientific literature is corrupt or biased, or whatever non-evidence based argument they can put forward.
Are you for real, bro?