History will view “trust the science” as the simpletons’ misused catchphrase of 2020. “Trust the science” or “follow the science” are rote responses to critics of broad shutdowns, shut-ins, and other policies that do more harm than good.
“Trust the science” should mean a lot of things, aside from debasing faith. Scientific discovery is a broad and constantly changing discipline involving all aspects of life and death. During the pandemic, “trust the science” has come to mean exclusive trust in those who view life through a microscope — experts on viral life and how it proliferates.
To genuinely “trust the science,” society must assess more than the findings of microbiology and virology. We must consider sociology, psychology, physiology, economics and more.
Scientists looking through microscopes do not see single parents facing more political dictates that say their jobs are nonessential. They do not see student diesel mechanics and welders who learn by doing, not by staring at computers. They do not see people who only found fellowship and belonging in their places of worship, work, learning and play.
We see posts on social media that feature our friends and acquaintances boasting of alcohol and pot consumption, trying to cope with their diminished lifestyles. Virtual happy hours and cocktail parties normalize drowning stresses and anxieties in wine, whiskey, beer and pot.
As of September, Nielsen’s market data revealed a surge of nearly 25% in alcohol sales outside of bars. Hard alcohol sales rose 28%.
The Journal of the American Medical Association — a peer-reviewed publication of science — finds a 10% average increase in alcohol consumption during the COVID crisis and a staggering 41% increase among women. That is a matter of social science outside the realm of the microscope.
Consider the fact most jobs deemed “nonessential” by governors — think restaurant wait staff — belong to women. Women disproportionately manage household finances, shopping, and children suffering the damaging effects of shuttered schools.
The Centers for Disease Control — if we are trusting science — reports record levels of drug overdoses during COVID. Overdoses have doubled in Colorado.
The CDC reports a 26.4% increase in COVID-era deaths involving cocaine and a 35% increase involving methamphetamine and psychostimulants.
“Measures taken at the national, state, and local level to address the COVID-19 pandemic may have unintended consequences for substance use and overdose,” the CDC reports.
Looking back years from now, we are likely to find crude efforts to stop the virus — measures that failed to consider a wide body of science — caused more harm than good. We smashed flies with a demolition ball and caused irreparable harm.
On this first Sunday of 2021, the third day of the “Dry January” tradition, we have decisions to make for ourselves when all the science and religion in the world cannot save us.
Just as millions overindulge alcohol and drugs, others prepare for better lives than they knew before the plague. All around us we see and read about investments in new businesses that cannot open until things get better — measured risks built on foundations of hope.
Families are learning to cook healthy meals. People walk neighborhoods in unprecedented numbers, in groups composed of relatives and friends. Sales of boats, fishing rods, climbing gear, and other outdoor accessories are setting records. That explains why Colorado Parks and Wildlife saw record-breaking use of state parks in 2020.
Science and religion combined will not save us. By learning from each, and thinking for ourselves, we can choose to flourish by building on hard times. Science calls it the will to survive.
The Gazette Editorial Board
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Yep, follow the science, Sweden stayed open and has 4,000 less deaths than Michigan and Sweden has 600,000 more people than Michigan. Michigan has been closed down. Also, when the hospitals were shut down, how many people will die of cancer, because their cancer spread, how many people died of heart disease and other diseases like diabetes? How many people are starving to death and how many people cannot pay their bills, because businesses are shut down. Oh, how great it is, “following the science”!
Add to that, HOW are we supposed to ‘follow the science’, WHEN EVEN THEY CAN’T agree on what is??
Better to trust He who created the Science, the creator of all, than he who only discovers what the Great ” I Am” had already put together. They the secular deceivers would steal credit from the creator, just like they claim their artificail impregnations made them the discoverers of, and creators of the first virgin birth. With the Creators act we received salavation, with the Secular acts we got the Social experimentors of aborted babies, race preference births, triage medical deciders of who survives or who get vaccinated, who make Dr. Frankenstein look like a Saint.
“He that dwellet in heaven shall laugh them to scorn,
The Lord will have them in derision”
And by the their acts of useless impeachments, media imaginations, cencorship and divisive acts even within their own ranks, their derision is great indeed and getting greater by the minute. Let’s hope it is not as contaigious as the COVID
Right now, “WE as a people”, can’t save, WE the people, from ourselves…