Chadwick Dolgos: Experts are being silenced during coronavirus pandemic

America is confused right now, and who can blame us? We are experiencing an increase in coronavirus cases while the media, politicians and health experts argue the cause of the recent spike and best practices in combating the spread of covid-19.

While navigating through daily media briefings and news stories about the virus, we also see articles, statistics and memes, often shared by our friends and family, that are purposefully misleading. Though these are often riddled with misinformation, they are shared as fact, which can lead people to act in accordance with what they perceive as newly introduced evidence.

In the midst of confusion and fear, we turn to experts to put our minds at ease and make recommendations based on the best available information. Sometimes the experts we often turn to, however, are not the ones with expertise on this specific subject matter. Instead, we tend to turn to people that we believe we can trust — elected officials, the news media and celebrities.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the pandemic, but America would benefit immensely from fact-based decision-making.

Politicians have a vested interest in giving the people who elect them what they want in order to win reelection. Voters can be over-reactive in times of crisis and demand immediate action from their representatives. Immediate action rarely allows for careful analysis of available data or data collection. Instead, immediate action requires regulations and mandates be made on the best interpretations of currently available data. This results in underdeveloped policy-making where policies work better on paper than they do in practice.

Due to the recent spikes in coronavirus cases, the news media has a vested interest in giving people as much information as possible as soon as it becomes available in hopes of continued viewership. Media sources often have their own ideological agendas to promote, which shapes the narrative on how stories are reported. One news article may fully support and agree that Americans should wear masks when they leave their homes, while another source may conclude that masks are more dangerous to our health than the coronavirus. These conflicting sources often cite the same expert information when drawing their conclusions. They can be misleading, because sometimes there is no financial benefit from honest reporting. Sensationalized journalism has become very marketable among American consumers, which has degraded the credibility of the 24-hour news cycle.

Celebrities have provided insight on the pandemic and how we as a country can best tackle it. Again, fact-based decision-making would go a long way in easing confusion. Recommendations made by celebrities are often unrealistic because they are out of touch with the everyday needs of the average person. Celebrities demanded that we stay home, forgetting that many Americans lack savings or a safety net of any sort and were financially unprepared. Average citizens may not have the storage capacity to stockpile items necessary to remain safely quarantined, causing them to make frequent trips to the grocery store where they are surrounded by other people potentially infected by the virus. While some recommendations were based on expert information such as that provided by the Centers for Disease Control, some of their suggestions were out of touch and unrealistic.

We need the truth. We need factual information. We need the ability to collect and analyze data and formulate policy based on that data alone. Special interests looking to exploit the pandemic for political or economic gain should be ignored.

People may like the mandates requiring everyone to wear masks, but they deserve to know their effectiveness. They deserve to know if masks should be required for all interactions, or if there is a way for us to go about our lives safely without wearing masks. If there is not, then we need experts we can trust to explain the dangers of not wearing masks. If we can navigate some aspects of our lives without wearing masks, we need politicians, the news media and celebrities to stop filling our minds with fear and allow the experts to guide the health recommendations.

Confusion causes Americans to act out. This was evident from the Open America protests held in many cities demanding that the government allow businesses to reopen. Our confusion was further amplified after the death of George Floyd, which sparked larger protests across major cities and suburbs. America is confused because the government, the media and celebrities are crowding the pool of information while silencing the experts.

Let the experts do their jobs; that’s the only way we are going to beat this pandemic.

Chadwick Dolgos, of Coraopolis, is a freelance writer who earned his master’s degree in public administration from George Mason University.