Epidemiologists

• Dr. Eric Ding on Twitter, May 16, 2021, says:

"KEEP WEARING THE MASK—We card-carrying epidemiologists (with formal doctorate in epidemiology) know what we are talking about. Vast majority of 700+ epidemiologists surveyed says we would keep wearing masks for 1 year or longer. "

• 

"With Hugs and Haircuts, U.S. Epidemiologists Start Returning (Carefully!) to Everyday Life," NYTimes, May 12, 2021:

In a new informal survey this month by The New York Times, 723 epidemiologists in the United States responded to questions about their life...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that fully vaccinated people could gather indoors with other vaccinated people without precautions, but it did not specify how many households could do so at once. In the survey, a plurality of epidemiologists said they would recommend limiting such gatherings to two households at a time. But a sizable number said larger gatherings among vaccinated people were OK.

The C.D.C. has also said that people no longer need masks when they are outdoors and can maintain physical distance from others, like on a walk, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated. Most epidemiologists agreed.

“This policy was always idiotic,” said Joe Lewnard, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who supported maskless exercise.

• Ben Kaufman letter of May 12:

This article is illustrative of the fundamental mistake that has characterized all popular coverage of this pandemic. It needs to be clarified on what subject matter epidemiologists are more qualified to speak than the average lay person. Epidemiologists ARE more qualified to QUANTIFY risks of certain behaviors. Epidemiologists are NOT more qualified to prescribe what all of us should do with those risks. When it comes to assessing what is the appropriate amount of risk that we as a society should accept in exchange for certain elements of normal life, a medical expert's opinion is precisely as valid as that of literally any other person.

When news outlets publish headlines or write stories reporting that medical experts are "against" certain rollbacks of restrictions, these reports aren't necessarily "false" but they are absolutely misleading. Putting the risk tolerance opinions of medical experts on a pedestal conflates in what realms medical experts are in fact experts. Medical experts are really good at CALCULATING risk: (i.e., if X number of people do this, Y number of people are likely to get sick). But arriving at a consensus acceptable level of risk is a society-wide job, and unfortunately not one where an M.D. is a significant qualification. Accordingly, the fact that medical experts are more cautious as a group in their personal decision making, is no more relevant than if pipe-fitters happened to be more cautious in their personal risk tolerances.