Getting “Starstruck” with Experts

Experts and Technocrats! I hate these words.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the words “experts” and “expertise” have become the buzzwords as if the word “expert” signals the end of the pandemic or at least the resolution of the crisis.

Some of us are even “starstruck” with those experts sending the former into an ecstasy of self-abnegation because in the presence of these “experts,” one is truly humbled.

They kowtowed to these experts like lapdogs drooling with saliva.

I have long abandoned such infatuation with experts. I do not believe in experts until they deliver results.

I remember during the early days of COVID-19 when it was still then called “Novel Corona Virus – 19,” those world experts in such a prestigious agency as the World Health Organization claimed that there is no need for alarm because China has this outbreak under control.

That was the expert opinion until it was proven wrong because the virus has now covered the entire planet.

Then we were told just to wash our hands and apply alcohol because the transmission of the virus is due to the fomites (objects that carry the virus such as surfaces).

Until it was proven that the virus is transmitted through “projectiles” such as large droplets, then we were told to wear facemask and observe social distancing.

Then we were advised not to worry because the virus is not “air-borne” until it was discovered that the virus is transmitted even in the air we exhale… then some went into a panic while some gave up their hands and threw caution into the air.

Unfortunately, we have come to know that these expert opinions were not made solely based on science but also politics.

It is common knowledge of how the World Health Organization kowtowed to China. It is common knowledge, not news anymore. You can read about it anywhere. This is not a conspiracy theory. Just read the news articles during the early stage of the pandemic. Now nobody seems to listen to experts in the WHO.

To explain that the changing protocols are due to so many unknowns about the virus and it was just discovered later to be such is a foolish defense for the experts.

More than science, politics, and economics played a lot in the spread of this pandemic as well as to its resolution.

This leads me to conclude that if we want to have a resolution of this pandemic, it is not just a matter of science.

It is also a matter of governance and economics. Unless we fix these three elements: science, governance, and economics, those so-called experts would just be a bunch of fools masquerading behind the facade of their expertise while people are dying.

Science will bring an end to the pandemic when a vaccine against the virus is discovered, and the cure against the disease it brings is proven effective.

Governance will help in the resolution of this global crisis when leaders are proven to have integrity whose actions bring confidence to the people, thus strengthening the social contract.

If leaders are trustworthy and have clear plans, people will be more willing to cooperate and trust these leaders with their lives. The contrary is true for corrupt leaders.

Economics will help when people are secure of their basic needs, without which “staying at home” will just be futile sloganeering.

But as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I hope the pudding will arrive soon, not later!

As to those so-called “experts,” will I hope they are not too late in the game. Let us see if they are truly experts before we get ourselves to become like teenagers in a frenzied infatuation.

We have enough of the pie called “expertise.” We need action and results.

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