'I'm a Social Scientist"

I don't know how many of you are MDs or PhDs, but this is the funniest thing I have heard in a long time. One of the president's task force advisors, when asked why his opinion should matter in the COVID-19 medication debate, said, "I'm a social scientist. I know how to read studies and statistics."

Holymotherofgod. What a thing to say!

This is like a baker telling you he should work on your car because he can read Popular Mechanics.

I know a couple of dozen social scientists "with PhDs" as he said, and they are going to be thrilled that they are now infectious disease experts on a par with the infectious disease head for 40 years at NIH. It's a shame my late wife isn't alive, as she had two social science doctorates and would have been in great demand for medical advice.

I'm going to get my compadres some "I'm a social scientist. Ask ME" buttons made up today. I mean, some of my friends have done some real dumbass things during this - like going to group lunches and Disney the day before it closed, so they need to know they all have some expertise that explains things.

There are plenty of related questions that a social scientist could/should answer. Implications of policy implementation, mechanics of policy implementation, effects of social distancing on various groups, impacts of missed school/half-assed school on various groups, likely impacts of increased activity among "cured" or "immune" people that were not in fact cured in any way. Those answers are important, and are more readily and accurately given by sociologists and political scientists than by MDs. But Navarro sure did cross the line into medicine in that meeting. wow.

My understanding is that he's an economist with a PhD from Harvard so you would think he has a basic understanding of statistical analysis, correlation vs. causation, etc. On the other hand, it's also my understanding that among economists he has been viewed for many years as a paranoid nut case.

Quote: redietz

.... this is the funniest thing I have heard in a long time. One of the president's task force advisors, when asked why his opinion should matter in the COVID-19 medication debate, said, "I'm a social scientist. I know how to read studies and statistics."

Holymotherofgod. What a thing to say!

Were you in the room?

What you quoted is anecdotal. Yet you believe it.

All data is anecdotal until someone analyzes it and writes a report.

It was Navarro, the social scientist, who called for an immediate China travel ban, and warned in late January that the virus could take more than 500,000 lives and cost the nation $6 trillion.

Economists have models too.

At the same time Fauci, the clinical researcher, was telling the nation this was not a major threat, and this was something the citizens of the United States should not be worried about.

Who got it right?

Quote: Tanko

Were you in the room?

What you quoted is anecdotal. Yet you believe it.

All data is anecdotal until someone analyzes it and writes a report.

It was Navarro, the social scientist, who called for an immediate China travel ban, and warned in late January that the virus could take more than 500,000 lives and cost the nation $6 trillion.

Economists have models too.

At the same time Fauci, the clinical researcher, was telling the nation this was not a major threat, and this was something the citizens of the United States should not be worried about.

Who got it right?

Um, Navarro said on national TV. I saw it. So technically I was "in the room"

Quote: Tanko

Were you in the room?

What you quoted is anecdotal. Yet you believe it.

All data is anecdotal until someone analyzes it and writes a report.

It was Navarro, the social scientist, who called for an immediate China travel ban, and warned in late January that the virus could take more than 500,000 lives and cost the nation $6 trillion.

Economists have models too.

At the same time Fauci, the clinical researcher, was telling the nation this was not a major threat, and this was something the citizens of the United States should not be worried about.

Who got it right?

Technically, your rebuttal comparing two stories about Navarro and Fauci is the only thing anecdotal in this thread.