Column: ‘Someone at the CDC’ is not a source
By Lindsey Canny
The facts are out there, and they’re coming right from the source.
You know someone who knows someone who is high up the totem pole at the CDC. Or was it OSHA? They have the inside scoop. They’ve been in the decision-making rooms, they helped write the rulebook, and they say right here, at this moment, in black and white that masks are ineffective (or social distancing is, or something). Come on—they said so on Facebook.
After spending four years of my life getting an education on how to teach others to do thorough researching and information sourcing, and now after spending the past six-and-a-half years actively teaching those skills to the city’s up-and-coming generation of citizens, it has become distressing to see how low the limbo stick of credibility is currently set when it comes to backing up an argument.
I do understand that, when talking about reading the front page of Facebook, I myself have already set the bar low for finding conducive, productive debate and argumentation, but even if a comment thread debate swiftly turns into hurled insults and vitriol, “evidence” needs to be real evidence—especially if the commenters are specifically naming news sources or organizations as proof.
One of the key skills of effective research is to be able to look critically at where information is coming from, and whether the source that published it is in fact a credible and reliable authority on the subject. The Center for Disease Control is absolutely a credible and reliable authority on the subject of infectious diseases and the prevention of their transmission, but it can only be named as a source of evidence when they have publicly released information or a statement in the name of their organization, backed up by their own comprehensive studies and data.
If your neighbor John J. Johnson does indeed work at the CDC and you would like to be able to say that “someone at the CDC” says X, Y, or Z about the effectiveness of masks, then John will need to have spoken for the organization in an official capacity—not just as a skeptical employee.
Another reason why a no-name “someone” can’t be called forward as evidence is because the evidence is truly found at the source. Just like a river can be traced back from the ocean to a small primary tributary, information needs to be traced back from the vast ocean of public opinion and misinterpretation to the pure, clean numbers it comes from.
The strongest evidence comes from primary sources—sources that provide new and original thinking, discoveries, data, or experiences—without secondhand opinion or conclusion-drawing warping the facts within.
As it stands, the primary researchers of mask effectiveness at the CDC are the same ones who have released the official statement about whether or not cloth masks are keeping everyone safe from the SARS-Cov-2 infection.
The verdict: Cloth masks should not be mandated in a healthcare setting (where surgical and N95 masks are preferred,) but should be used to prevent community spread of infection.
And finally, one of the final competencies a person can master while conducting active and thorough research is possibly the toughest one to achieve: acquiring the self-awareness to know that you are not an expert, you probably never will be, and need to defer to the actual experts for the facts.
Simply reading research from other sources doesn’t make you an expert, no matter how many documents and studies you pore through. Being of a certain age doesn’t make you an expert, no matter how much you feel you learned in “the school of hard knocks.”
Getting a full and comprehensive education at an accredited institution, however, with the practical experience from both the instructional facility and directly in the career field in the years afterward are the only things that can make a person an expert.
Until the time we all receive our degrees and field experience in infectious diseases and the safety measures it takes to prevent them, let’s let the CDC and OSHA speak for themselves, and let’s leave our cousin’s friend’s brother’s coworker and his Facebook page in the hidden spaces of the internet where it belongs.
Lindsey Canny is a paid columnist for the Metro Wire. She chooses her own topics and her opinions do not necessarily represent the staff of the Metro Wire. She is a UWSP alum who works as a teacher in Stevens Point.
