I want to point out three ways in which responses to the pandemic, especially in the United States, worsened the crisis of expertise. First, the social and cultural environment heading into 2020 was already infused with distrust and even paranoia about science and expert knowledge, and among many people, the pandemic deepened those feelings. Second, the polarized condition of American politics and the failure of leadership in the national government virtually ensured that a natural disaster would become a political weapon in the hands of charlatans and opportunists. And third, the experts made
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