[prostoalex]

Imagine a member of general public not knowing much about polio. Imagine them reading the fact that medical establishment knowingly injected people with problematic substances, and then apologetically backed down from its position later on and reverted its recommendations. Scanning the health news seems to imply similar retractions in other areas of medical research (saturated fats were bad, and now they're not; coffee was dangerous, and now it's good for you). There's also the news that flu vaccines are basically useless as they fight last year's flu.

Now try to convince the aforementioned member of general public to treat the current corpus of medical research as a gospel.

I dont't defend those decisions, but I can see how a rational person might develop somewhat of a sceptical view.