You’re doubtless familiar with the term armchair quarterback, but I heard a different usage yesterday that sounded truly groundbreaking.
Armchair epidemiologist.
“During the pandemic, everybody was an armchair epidemiologist, right?” Dr. Tyler Evans was telling me on the phone from California. People were excited about the mRNA technology used to develop COVID-19 vaccines.
“Everybody was citing the evidence and the data and all that. A lot of my patients were like, ‘Oh yeah, well Pfizer’s 96% effective, Moderna’s 97%.’ Everybody knew these numbers, so I’m surprised now that people are having amnesia.”
In the wake of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement that the government would cancel $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines currently in development, I reached out to Dr. Evans after reading about his book, which seemed relevant.