I'm still not sure what you mean by "uninformed" though.
Because it seems when you say "uninformed" all you really mean is "doesn't blindly accept the establishment narrative".
That narrative has shifted and even reversed itself multiple times by the way, so do you have a favorite month/year of narrative that you use as the yardstick to measure whether or not someone is "informed"?
If "informed" includes believing Biden and Maddow et al when they confidently proclaimed vaccinated people couldn't catch or spread covid or believing Fauci when he said the Wuhan lab wasn't doing gain-of-function research or any of the other nonsense that has since been proven bullshit and quietly swept under corporate media's rug...
...there's not exactly a lot of value in being "informed", is there?
I don't watch news on the idiot box. I don't now or never have watched all the press conferences Fauci et al, gave. I read and I read a lot. I'll ask you to give me the benefit of the doubt, if you please.
I do understand the rubric within which the public health agencies operate in this country. And yes, some of it is militarized, i.e. the United States Public Health Service - from where our General
Surgeon hails
. I was in my early years of public health when 9/11 happened. I saw, within days, maybe a week how our own Health Officer was yanked from all the "normal" activities (not that it really exists) to bioterrorism.
The funding it gets, which is quite insignificant in comparison to other parts of government, was shifted. Some of that money that was shifted was absolutely going to fund research into "germ warfare". When that funding is shifted, it is shifted from other research. Including things like developing vaccines.
Covid caught us with our pants down. I don't know how precisely the pandemic happened, but I tend to agree that it was most likely an accidental contamination that was unleashed on an unprepared public, first in China, then quickly across the globe.
We're never going to get the whole truth when it comes to matters that are considered "national security" endeavors, we never have and never will. At least, I don't think. I don't think it matters who is in the White House, Trump, Biden, or even a politician you would support. It just won't happen.
However, once it was out and spreading like wildfire and many people were dying, something had to be done. Yes, the pharmaceuticals did receive massive amounts of funding to develop vaccines. We only did have "emergency authorization" for these vaccines. That's all true, but again, we're working within that rubric of poorly funded agencies dealing with a global health emergency.
There is no 100% great outcome on anything. Public health is intended to work at the population level. It has never been there to protect every single human life. That isn't the mission. Public health is meant to protect the most people possible. A decent metaphor, though not perfect, is a that public health is like a fisherman's net. It captures the most fishes in the net, and in terms of health it's job is to intervene in ill health. But some fish fall through the net (they get sick or injured)...those are the "fish" that need to seek treatment with physicians and perhaps even become hospitalized, etc.
Vaccines are a public health tool, one of the most successful interventions in the history of medicine. Usually they take many years to be approved for humans in order to ensure that these vaccines are safe for the general population. Even so, some people are allergic to some vaccines. There are adverse outcomes. There is a specific way to report adverse outcomes. That also depends on physicians reporting, which unfortunately, sometimes the average doctor out there forgets, neglects to or doesn't believe in reporting...
And as for "messaging", I would have to agree with you that some of it has been really shitty as it pertains to this pandemic. For example, one early message from Fauci was for people not to use masks because it was unnecessary. Then months later, go ahead, mask up.
The truth is that in order for a mask to be protective, it would have to be an N-95, properly fitted. It can greatly reduce transmission. Of course, you would have to have a huge supply of these masks, not only for most Americans, but enough for a new mask daily. The US just didn't have them. So the message was, we need them for our healthcare workers...which is completely true. But they didn't tell us everything. And I can see why.
We have a public with a short attention span. Telling them, well right now bear with us, healthcare workers need them and we'll try to get masks asap...fuggedabout it. It takes a long slide of interventions to change a behavior. There is no quick message to get Americans to do a god damn thing without regulation, because well FREEDUMB. We have a society that is extremely individualistic and who believe their rights supersede common purpose.
So yeah, messaging was shitty, but again, working with a difficult citizenry. We're fortunate to have some of the most highly trained and knowledgeable MD scientists in the world. Unfortunately, they aren't always the best at formulating messages and communicating. Have you talked to a scientist lately? I talk to one daily, he can be such a reductionist...they often miss the forest for the trees. But that's what science has trained them to do, be focused on the science, not on communicating. So, like Dr's will do, they'll say what they think you should know and move on to what they actually care about, the work.
Another aspect of "messaging" that people don't think about is that "science" is supposed to change when new and compelling data is found. It's supposed to change, that's where the "science" has led us. There is no one answer, because we're dealing with human beings that react differently to new treatments. There is rarely "this is my final answer."
Yes, some people have suffered from myocarditis, but the numbers are well below the threshold from pulling vaccines for covid away from the population. And mostly because most of those people experienced the myocarditis and then the symptoms went away on their own. Yes, some people have died and that is terrible. However, it's my belief that until scientists are able to more clearly identify who shouldn't be vaccinated people should do that on their own.
What they shouldn't do, in my opinion, is assume the "goobermint" is out to get them and try to dissuade others from making choices based on their own beliefs.
