It’s time for the scientific community to ADMIT we were WRONG about COVID and It COST LIVES

… I staunchly supported the efforts of the public health authorities when it came to COVID-19

… I believed that the authorities responded … with compassion, diligence, and scientific expertise

… I was with them when they called for lockdowns, vaccines, and boosters

… I was wrong. We in the scientific community were wrong. And it cost lives

… from the CDC to the WHO to the FDA and their representatives, repeatedly overstated the evidence

… misled the public

… on natural vs. artificial immunity

…  school closures and disease transmission

… aerosol spread

… mask mandates

… and vaccine effectiveness and safety, especially among the young

… All of these were scientific mistakes at the time, not in hindsight

… resulted in thousands if not millions of preventable deaths

… we portrayed those opposing our efforts as misguided, ignorant, selfish, and evil

… We made science a team sport, and in so doing, we made it no longer science

… It became us versus them, and “they” responded the only way anyone might expect them to: by resisting

… their systematic exclusion from the dominant, corporatized media machine that presumed omniscience

… Labeling this speech “misinformation”

… blaming it on “scientific illiteracy” and “ignorance,”

… the government conspired with Big Tech to aggressively suppress it

… we have witnessed a massive and ongoing loss of life

… a massive concentration in wealth by already wealthy elites

… a rise in suicides and gun violence

… a near-doubling of the rate of depression and anxiety disorders especially among the young

… a catastrophic loss of educational attainment among already disadvantaged children

… It’s OK to be wrong and admit where one was wrong and what one learned. That’s a central part of the way science works

… Yet I fear that many are… too afraid to publicly take responsibility for doing so