The pandemic revealed the degree to which any respectable field can harbour extremely dangerous kookery without realising it.
For example, Western health authorities used to be absolutely certain that viruses could not be airborne (outside of very specific medical procedures), even though they did not have any good reason or evidence to back that up: it was just an old idea that happened to fit in with their priors, so generations of experts kept parroting it until horror unfolded.
For example, Western health authorities used to be absolutely certain that viruses could not be airborne (outside of very specific medical procedures), even though they did not have any good reason or evidence to back that up: it was just an old idea that happened to fit in with their priors, so generations of experts kept parroting it until horror unfolded.