[giardini]

ree2OSS says>"Epidemiologists are the experts"<

Epidemiology of COVID-19 has been a train wreck. Indeed we must ask if epidemiology is a science at all.

Interviewing 700 epidemiologists is a fool's errand providing no useful information. One might as well simplify the selection criteria and interview 700 (or better, simply 30) people of above-average intelligence.

ree2OSS says>"Physicians are not scientists, they aren't supposed to make policy decisions."<

I agree with the first sentence but not with the second. Most medical organizations/hospitals/institutions/clinics are headed up by physicians who make policy decisions all day long.

[onecommentman]

“Interviewing 700 epidemiologists is a fool's errand providing no useful information.”

Do you seriously believe there is “no useful information” from such an exercise? None? Methinks you are being facetious.

I agree you shouldn’t necessarily follow what they say they do, but even realizing there is a diversity of responses among those who have some formal training is surely of some value. Especially among the target audience of the NYT that tends to believe what an authority tells them more than the average American.