[zmgsabst]

This is just an appeal to authority with a dash of shaming.

You’re failing to consider the opposite bias, where professionals whose income and prestige depends on a particular idea fail to critically assess it and judge themselves based on their motivations rather than outcomes — and outsiders who only see the claims and outcomes have a less biased view.

That’s the case for gain-of-function research:

- the US banned it despite expert opinions

- a rogue expert circumvented that ban by outsourcing the work to China

- that Chinese lab leaked the studied virus, causing a global pandemic

- the rogue scientist panicked and bribed several peers to help him cover that up and claim a “natural” origin

- millions of people are dead due to hubris and personal biases