In these comments we see the partisan motivation that has been in large part responsible for making the USA the world leader in Covid-19 infections and deaths. Like the anti-vaxxer movement, this latest attack on science has bred a crowd of American science “skeptics” by bringing the same old anti-science argument: “If we don’t know everything, we know nothing.” This doubt campaign does not have to prove a conspiracy to destroy effective action against the epidemic. To keep the disease multiplying among us, it need only justify doubt in people’s minds to encourage their resistance to mask wearing and social distancing.
We could cut the impact of this disease drastically if all of us would be a little more careful. Too many people won’t, though, because they saw on a website somewhere that doing so makes them sheep or liberals (see “Prius” comment above) or socialists or whatever dog whistle is bouncing around in their echo chamber.