Zeynep Tufekci, Champion of Science

Yesterday I learned about someone I now consider to be a hero of the pandemic, Zeynep Tufekci. Maybe I'm late on the uptake, but I wanted to share a note about why I found her so inspirational. Maybe you will too.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I encourage you to listen to her interview on the Making Sense podcast with Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/podcasts/233-groves-misinformation/.

Zeynep is a Sociologist whose research interests put her in an unenviable position early in the pandemic, to dispute the recommendations of the WHO, the CDC, and other leading health officials and argue for the importance of widespread mask-wearing. Although she was an "outsider" to the medical community, her writings helped spur a change to the scientific and public discourse around masks, likely saving many lives.

There are a few qualities that Zeynep demonstrated that I think are essential ingredients for a good scientist:

Reality testing: While other social scientists were quick to write articles about why our animal brains make us prone to bias and overreaction in a pandemic, Zeynep was gathering high-quality information to determine what the appropriate level of caution should actually be. She didn’t rely on the opinions of the experts because she KNEW, based on real evidence, that they were wrong. Sometimes we need to take other peoples' word for it, but sometimes it's our word that should be taken by others.

Intellectual humility: Although Zeynep was confident in her conclusions, she kept asking herself, “have I missed something? Am I actually mistaken?” When she put her opinions out to the public, she was seeking opposing viewpoints that would challenge her reasoning, and when she uncovered those arguments and demonstrated their inherent flaws it showed the integrity of her position.

Willingness to challenge conventional thinking (aka Courage): Zeynep didn’t want to be the voice that challenged the established voice of the scientific community, she wanted others in greater positions of influence to step up and do it. But when she saw that wasn’t going to happen, she did it herself even though she suspected that it might cost her career. The result was that her writing opened the floodgates and effected change.

Now, here’s why Zeynep’s story spoke to me personally…

I know that I can’t know everything, and, although I do try to educate myself as much as I can, I often defer to the advice and counsel of those with expertise that I don't have, whose reasoning is based on sound logic and evidence. That’s why I trust “the science”, meaning that I trust the insights of the scientific community.

But I know that this isn’t perfect. Scientists are human beings, and there are systematic biases and issues that affect us and our institutions the same way they do everything else. So, my trust in this community is somewhat flawed, but I take the good with the bad with the confidence that this is still the best source of information available to me.

But that is only true as long as there is a Zeynep around. Although many medical professionals shared her viewpoint, none of them spoke out, and the system became compromised. She demonstrated the values of a true scientist with good practice and good conscience and is someone that we should all strive to emulate.  She elevated the discourse and was absolutely essential to ensuring that the medical community provided sound advice based on sound evidence and reasoning when it was needed most.

Long story short, let's be more like Zeynep!