In whose science should we trust?

I laughed at Steve Barrass’s accusation of PM Boris’s ‘derogation of responsibility’ by claiming ‘we are being led by the science’ (10/7/20).

Every politician in the world is ‘(mis)led by science’ - it’s called statistics: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”! Statistics don’t lie, but their (mis)interpretation does.

Science is by definition never static (physics teachers use 21st century theories, not 18th century ones!); science is by definition the critical testing of endless hypotheses until one miraculously fits (statistically). So which scientists should we believe? The bona fide scientists who are by definition sceptics by further challenging hypotheses, advancing science, or polarised faux scientists (and politicians) who dogmatically reject healthy scepticism and wrongly call sceptics ‘deniers’!

Scientists do get things wrong - remember thalidomide?

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