Here is an interesting apology from a “true believer” - a PhD who wholeheartedly and full-throatedly supported lockdowns, masks, vaccine mandates, and worse, for years.
In particular, I agree completely with his interpretation that many ‘experts’ thought (think!) of their interventions as moral (above and beyond any scientific justification).
Such self examination and character to publicly apologize is impressive. It cannot undo the damage such people did to our society - but at least it is a start.
[Just for the record, the author describes his use of the term “Good Guy Team” to be both an accurate representation of how he thought of himself at the time - and, now, as an ironic acknowledgement of the failings of his thought process.]
During COVID, those of us on the Good Guy Team wanted interventions like vaccines, lockdowns, masks, etc. to work so badly that whenever there was any inkling that they might, we pounced on that and promoted it zealously.
We didn't brook scientific discussion because it wasn't a scientific debate that we were having. It had a scientific dimension but its main aspect was its moral one. Thus, to dissent was to be immoral.
None of us wanted to be immoral so none of us did. We all thought the same about this fact, so we also knew that asking questions and being critical meant earning the ire of our colleagues.
We couldn't see that to point out harms or downsides might actually help us to make better policy. We only saw that pointing out harms (and were they really "harms" anyway?) would dissuade people from doing the right thing and protecting themselves and others.
So we didn't question. And by not questioning, we didn't allow ourselves to develop views that were contrary to the ones we already held. We held ourselves rigidly in this morally dictated box, where our scientific opinions were mainly dictated by our morality rather than by our critical faculties that we had all developed but which we held in reserve on this one subject (and perhaps others).
I believe that most of academia and most of the expert class is still locked in this box with regard to COVID and many other questions. It makes me terrified about the future of this country.
Unless they can see the other point of view, the point of view outside their own, it will be impossible for them to make good policy, and we will see a further deterioration in the political fabric of the United States.
It is absolutely imperative that we break through this cult-like mental fortress, or I am afraid that the future of this country is in serious jeopardy.