Trusting the Experts: What Do You Do When Jon Snow Knows Nothing?
Updated: Aug 13
Lately, there has been a lot of public discussion about doctors, scientists, and the decisions they made during major health crises. What stands out to me is how easy it is to judge the people doing the work without looking closely at how that work actually happens. Science rarely begins with a perfect answer. It begins with a problem, a theory, some evidence, and a lot of uncertainty. As I watched one of my favorite TV shows, it made me think about one of the most famous examples of public health drama in history.
In 1854, cholera was tearing through London. Most doctors believed the disease came from foul-smelling air, but Dr. John Snow thought everyone might be looking in the wrong place. Yes, John Snow. For my Game of Thrones fans, apparently this John Snow also spent a lot of time trying to convince people that something dangerous was coming while everyone else wondered if he knew anything at all. Dr. Snow believed cholera was spreading through contaminated water. He talked to families, mapped deaths around London, and noticed that many cases surrounded a public water pump on Broad Street. He did not know exactly what caused cholera, and germ theory had not yet been accepted. What he had was evidence. Eventually, Dr. Snow convinced local officials to remove the handle from the pump. That was a pretty big ask. He was telling local officials to shut off a water source that people used every day, even though most people still believed something else was causing the disease. They did not have every answer, but they had enough information to act.
When COVID arrived, doctors and scientists faced a similar problem: people were already getting sick while the evidence was still being gathered. Early studies showed that people could spread the virus before they knew they were infected. As more evidence came in, researchers learned more about how the virus traveled through the air, how well different masks worked, which treatments helped, and how vaccines changed the risk of serious illness. Recommendations changed along the way because the evidence changed. That was not always communicated perfectly, but the process was what science is supposed to do: ask a question, gather evidence, test the answer, and change course when better evidence comes along.
The problem is that modern media can turn the scientist into a bigger story than the science. We remember Dr. Snow’s map and the Broad Street pump, not whether people liked him. Scientific claims should be examined and challenged, but there is a difference between “Show me the evidence” and “I don’t like the person showing me the evidence.” In Westeros, as in London, John Snow was not trusted because he had a title or because everyone liked him. He was trusted because he had seen the threat himself, listened to evidence, challenged what people thought they knew, and changed his decisions when new information became available.
In the end, the value of the response may have less to do with who was speaking and more to do with how the answer was reached. Did the evidence hold up? Were assumptions tested? Were uncertainties admitted? And when better information came along, did the recommendations change with it?
Maybe that is what trust in science really looks like; not certainty, and not loyalty to a person, but confidence in a process that is willing to keep asking better questions.
Dr. Sharma is a board-certified family medicine physician and the founder of HealthWinds, a virtual-first family medicine practice serving DuPage County and the surrounding Chicago suburbs. He comes with over 11 years of experience specializing in family medicine with Duly Health and Care and Loyola Medicine's MacNeal Hospital, among others. He sees patients ages five and up, with longer visits and direct access built around a membership model rather than insurance.
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