Why Science Lost Its Way

Author Matt Ridley examines how science became centralized and dogmatic, why public trust collapsed during COVID, and how open dissent is essential to restoring credibility.

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Why Science Lost Its Way

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Today's guest is the science writer Matt Ridley, author of best-selling books such as The Red Queen, The Rational Optimist, and, with Alina Chan, Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19. At a live event filmed in New York City, Ridley tells Nick Gillespie that political and cultural elites had already turned science, our best tool for understanding and improving the world, into a centralized, hyperpoliticized priesthood even before COVID.

He walks through the collapse of public trust in 2020 as experts flipped on masks and transmission, declared Black Lives Matter protests safe but religious services dangerous, and insisted on certainty where none existed. Ridley also explains how the lab leak hypothesis went from being a forbidden conspiracy theory to the most plausible explanation for the pandemic.

He shares his thoughts on why climate alarmism is finally waning, the future of innovation in an age of overregulation, why he's bullish on the future of nuclear power and AI, and how America can spark a new technological renaissance—even when leaders seem determined to smother dissent.

0:00—Introduction

1:59—Bill Gates' climate change reversal

6:15—How COVID diminished public trust

14:27—Centralization and confirmation bias

17:53—Vaccine skepticism

21:29—Sex and evolutionary theory

29:47—Politicization of science

31:34—COVID lab leak theory

37:50—Human progress

46:10—The role of storytelling

Previous appearances:

"Matt Ridley: Why Did Anthony Fauci et al. Suppress the Lab Leak Theory?"

"Matt Ridley: The Coronavirus Pandemic Shows 'That There's No Monopoly on Wisdom'"

"Matt Ridley on How Fossil Fuels Are Greening the Planet"

"Matt Ridley on Ideas Having Sex, Free Trade, and Apocalyptic Science With Reason's Kennedy"

"Matt Ridley on His New Book, The Rational Optimist, & Why 'Ideas Having Sex' is a Very Great Thing Indeed"

Upcoming Reason Events

Reason Versus debate: Big Tech Does More Good Than Harm on December 10

• Producer: Paul Alexander
• Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser

Comments

[SQRLSY]

Science lost shit's authority when it was revealed (by RELIABLE whack jobs no less!) that there were FOR SURE, Lizard-People-tech microchips in the vaccines!!! And "The Science" was HIDING all of the evidence, along with the captured alien "flying saucers", and the movie studios where the moon landings were FAKED, Jake!

[Neutral not Neutered]

You have far too much time which is probably why you write such retarded posts.

[Ron]

Covid was just the straw, there have been plenty of other issues to prove science is controlled by politics and money. climate change is one and of course Eugenics and experimenting on POC and finding that 20 years of Alzhimer studies were all based on one fake study wasting millions of dollars and time

[Neutral not Neutered]

Add in the most prominent Harvard Professor faked a study on Sugar which caused the world's health professionals to chase fat and everything else as the culprit for decades for what is unhealthy and causing diabetes to explode.

[SQRLSY]

Hey all of Ye PervFected anti-science pro-ignorance admirers of death, suffering, and disease! See below my just-now exchange with "Perplexity" AI! Concerning COVID vaxxes!

Anti-COVID-vaxxers often harp on heart-tissue damages or inflammation (heart-lining tissues of some sort?). Yet I very recently read a for-pay hardcopy science magazine that discussed a reputable study that showed that children who are vaccinated get less of this heart-tissue swelling than those infected with COVID. Do you have a good link that shows this?

Yes. There are now several large analyses showing that myocarditis and related heart complications are more common after COVID infection than after mRNA vaccination in children and adolescents.
Here are two very clear, accessible links:
Child/teen-specific study (UK data)
• University of Cambridge summary: “Risk of rare heart complications in children higher after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination” (2025).cam+1
o Using English health records, they found that children and young people had higher and longer lasting risks of myocarditis, pericarditis, and related inflammatory heart problems after COVID infection than after vaccination.cam
o Over six months, infection was estimated to cause about 2.24 extra cases of myocarditis/pericarditis per 100,000 infected children versus 0.85 extra cases per 100,000 vaccinated children.cam
o After vaccination, the risk bump was short term (first ~4 weeks) and then returned to baseline, whereas after infection, elevated risk persisted for months.cam
That Cambridge page is probably very close to the article you saw in spirit.
Broader comparative data (including youth)
• A systematic review/meta analysis comparing myocarditis after infection vs vaccination concluded the risk of myocarditis is more than seven times higher after SARS CoV 2 infection than after COVID vaccination overall.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih
• CDC linked analyses similarly report that cardiac complications are significantly more common after infection than after mRNA vaccination, across sexes and age groups, including adolescents.cdc+1
These don’t say vaccination is risk free (vaccine associated myocarditis, especially in teen males after dose 2, is real but rare), but they support exactly the point you mention: for kids and teens, the net myocarditis/inflammation risk is higher from catching COVID than from getting vaccinated.gavi+3

1. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/risk-of-rare-heart-complications-in-children-higher-after-covid-19-infection-than-after-vaccination

2. https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/covid-19-infection-poses-higher-longer-heart-risks-children-vaccination

Etc. ...

[Rick James]

CDC linked analyses similarly report that cardiac complications are significantly more common after infection than after mRNA vaccination, across sexes and age groups, including adolescents.cdc+1
These don’t say vaccination is risk free (vaccine associated myocarditis, especially in teen males after dose 2, is real but rare), but they support exactly the point you mention: for kids and teens, the net myocarditis/inflammation risk is higher from catching COVID than from getting vaccinated.gavi+3

And since the vaccine doesn't prevent infection, then you're adding the danger of mRNA into the mix when the chances of a healthy young person dying of COVID was essentially 0.

You really should think a little harder before you post.

[Eeyore]

It's all statistical fraud. Follow up studies that removed all of the vaccinated from the analysis showed zero increased risk of myocaditis from covid infection.

[SQRLSY]

Your PervFected cite fell off!

[Eeyore]

I'm not going to cite shit, because you aren't going to read it anyway.

You might be behind on your boosters. Just saying.

[SQRLSY]

Killing people is good ass long ass anti-vaxxers have their way in promoting anti-vaxism ass THE most fashionable of ALL Marks of Tribal Virtue!!!

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status?country=~All+ages
Just LOOK at the interactive graph right at the top of this link!!!! COVID deaths among the unvaccinated VASTLY outnumbered, and still outnumber, the deaths among the vaccinated!!! WHY do You Perfectly Lust SOOOO Much for death and suffering, LYING servant and serpent of communicable diseases?!?!

PS, "food" is dangerous! People get sick and even die from food poisoning!!! Be SAFE!!! STOP eating!!!!

PPS, can you actually READ? The data CLEARLY shows that this swelling of heart tissues is GREATER for those (un-vaxxed) who get infected than those who get vaxxed!!! And vaccines actually WORK, if not perfectly, than at least for HELPING to stop the spread of disease, and for lessening the severity of infections! Educated (non-Tribalistic) people have known this for a few hundred years now!

[Rick James]

the median age of deceased patients was 80.5 years, with an average age of 79.5 years.
In the United States, the overall median age at death was 78 years, though this varied by race and ethnicity: 81 years for White individuals, 72 years for non-White, non-Hispanic individuals, and 71 years for Hispanic individuals.

So I'm going to say again, why would you expose a child to the known risks of vaccination when their chance of dying from COVID is essentially 0?

[Rick James]

Aaand...

[SQRLSY]

Because you care about other people, and don't want to spread disease? Because you care about your children, and (per the data I have fetched via the AI for people who actually can READ, and have open minds), you lessen the chances of your children getting myocarditis and related heart complications? Because actual data, and preventing death and diseases, is VERY often MORE important than tribal ax-grinding?

[Rick James]

Also I like how your own graph shows the over 80 cohort. Did you read your own graph when you clicked on the <18 cohort? Clearly you didn't. Dude, this argument was rode hard and put away wet. And now even fucking Reason is on the bandwagon. Sure, 5 years too late, but when you've lost Nick "it's just about pronouns" Gillespie.

[SQRLSY]

Yes, I have read this graph MANY times! Yes, I know that the younger people benefit from the COVID vaxx a lot less than older people. For ALL people, though, getting the vax reduces your carried viral load if you DO manage to catch COVID anyway, so by getting vaxxed, you show that you care about NOT spreading disease!
WHY is tribalism SOOOOO much more important than stopping the spread of diseases? I would REALLY like to know, seriously!

[Rick James]

The last I'll say on this.

[SQRLSY]

You're busted, I'm disgusted, and YOU can't be trusted! Here's what "Perplexity" has to say about Your PervFected link:

TapNewsWire is not a reputable source in the sense journalists, fact‑checkers, or medical professionals use that term, and its framing of Paul Offit’s comments is misleading compared with primary reporting and his own words.

## What TapNewsWire is

- TapNewsWire runs strongly conspiratorial, highly opinionated content on politics, COVID, “official stories,” and similar themes, with headlines that frame mainstream institutions as corrupt or lying and that promote “truth vs official conspiracy theory” narratives.[1][2]
- It does not operate like a standard news outlet: there is no transparent editorial process, no clear corrections policy, and articles often rely on cherry‑picked quotes or secondary sources rather than directly linking to full primary documents or interviews.[2][1]

While some pieces may quote real people or events, the site as a whole fits the pattern of a partisan/conspiracy blog, not a neutral or carefully fact‑checked news source.

## How it treats Paul Offit and bivalent boosters

- Paul Offit has indeed been publicly skeptical about the broad use of bivalent boosters in low‑risk groups, arguing that the incremental benefit for healthy younger people is small and that decisions were made on limited human data.[3][4][5]
- In mainstream coverage (e.g., ProPublica, CNN), Offit’s position is nuanced: he supports primary vaccination, worries about overpromising on boosters, and thinks the bivalent upgrade did not clearly improve protection against severe disease for all groups.[4][5]
- TapNewsWire’s headline claim that he “admits new covid bivalent boosters offer no benefits” overstates and distorts that nuance; it is not how Offit or reputable outlets phrase his position, and it ignores subgroups (older, high‑risk) where benefit is still expected.[5][3][4]

So the TapNewsWire article starts from a real kernel (Offit’s skepticism) but pushes it into an absolute, polemical claim that does not match the underlying sources.

## How to treat it

- For anything as technical and politicized as COVID vaccines, it is far better to read:
- Original interviews or op‑eds from Offit himself.[3][4]
- Coverage from outlets that quote him in context and cross‑check with data (e.g., CNN, ProPublica, major medical journals).[4][5]
- TapNewsWire can occasionally point you toward topics or people to investigate, but it should not be treated as a reliable source on its own; always track claims back to primary or mainstream medical sources before putting weight on them.[1][2]

[1](https://tapnewswire.com/2025/09/15/the-official-story-the-official-conspiracy-theory-the-truth/)

[2](https://tapnewswire.com/2023/11/29/truth-is-dangerous-so-shut-your-mouth/)
bsite/tapnewswire.com/overview/)

Etc.

[Michael Ejercito]

Just click here.

https://ethicsalarms.com/2020/06/08/oh-no-its-monday-ethics-review-6-8-2020-a-yoos-rationalization-orgy/

In other words, ‘We oppose maligning demonstrators as risky to the public health although we have maligned demonstrators in other contexts as risky to the public health but because of the purpose of these demonstrations, they aren’t really risky to the public health compared to the risks of not addressing what they are protesting about, although nothing about the actual demonstrations will address those risks.’ Not only is this Rationalization #64, Yoo’s Rationalization, “It isn’t what it is,” it’s Authentic Frontier Gibberish! To state the obvious, or what should be, one may oppose racism without spreading the Wuhan virus: oppose it by staying home, Zooming, writing blog posts, anything but getting in the middle of mobs. Also “Respond to protesters’ demands” is an imaginary action: “Fix everything!” is not a demand capable of responding to.

[Neutral not Neutered]

The lone surfer on the ocean in front of an empty beach was the biggest threat California faced while Newsome ate his shirt with his friends at the French Laundry.

[Eeyore]

If you wave money at Schrodinger's cat it can be in whatever state the person waving the money wants it to be in.

It it the financial certainty principle.

[Neutral not Neutered]

Yup. Every death noted as covid on the death certificate pays more. Go get em boys!

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Fauci “I am the science “ was the last straw.

[Neutral not Neutered]

Yet the fucker was barely investigated never mind charged for being a fucking fraud.

[sarcasmic]

Science is leftist.

[SQRLSY]

Yes, this! And COVID and other diseases are RIGHT-TITS, so be Tribally PROUD, and spread diseases around, like there's no tomorrow!

[Idaho-Bob]

Yes it is.

Scientific method is not.

[Neutral not Neutered]

FIFY

Pseudo - Science is leftist. They have to ignore or steer the facts to represent their wishes.

[Use the Schwartz]

This was a good listen, thanks Nick.

[Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment]

"...He shares his thoughts on why climate alarmism is finally waning,..."

Forty years of failed predictions, by any chance?
It ain't a wolf, it's a small dog and we don't want it soiling the carpet

[Neutral not Neutered]

The Maldives, still the same amount above Sea Level as it was 4 decades ago, crisis, has not been solved.

It must be the 3 new airports and multiple new resorts that are distracting the "climate scientists" from spending the billions to save the Islands from climate doom and instead party like it's 1999.