Unqualified and dishonest: the ‘experts’ who undermined confidence in AstraZeneca will cost Australians’ lives - Sydney Morning Herald

And as uncomfortable as this will be for those who have valued the emergence of scientific experts as opinion leaders during the pandemic, we must acknowledge the role of experts in the media who reinforce negative politics and create the confusion that exists despite our COVID-19 success.

As difficult as 2020 was, for a moment there was a mood of optimism within the scientific community in Australia.

Despite years of apparently ignoring clear scientific advice on climate change, a Liberal government in Australia was clearly following the expert advice on COVID-19.

Armed with webcams and with journalists hungry for information, a handful of academics marked themselves out for their propensity to overstate the devastation likely to be wrought by the pandemic in Australia.

Their positions are characterised as risk-averse and dismissive of the harder-to-measure consequences of COVID-19 restrictions.

The NSW government has tried to navigate a middle road in pandemic policy combining excellent testing, tracing and isolation measures with a strong desire to maintain the principle of proportionality in this response.

The philosophy of the risk-averse experts is self-fulfilling.

The most egregious example of the influence of risk-averse academics and medical commentators on policy has been anti-AstraZenecism which has afflicted our rollout.

As experts, we need to avoid positioning ourselves behind different policy positions.

Sure, present the science as we see it, but leave the policy to those who actually have responsibility for the community and for weighing up the consequences of COVID-19, be they physical, mental, social or economic.

We as a community must become adept at differentiating scientific opinion from fact and recognise risk aversion from good advice as we move into 2022.