[mike_hearn]

"They" means scientists. The CDC, SAGE in the UK and the equivalents in other countries. They were directly giving briefings and press conferences.

We got to watch the scientific process in real time, indeed. It consisted of new evidence coming in and nobody updating their beliefs.

> If different countries had come to similar conclusions independently, that would mean the conclusion are likely valid, no?

No. After all, that cuts both ways. Many hundreds of millions of people around the world who were fully independent of the scientific grant funding structure watched this process and came to very different conclusions. So that must be mean the conclusions are likely invalid, no?