A Career
After a career in education, it’s difficult to say what I’m an “expert” in. I spent twenty-eight years in the classroom, teaching social studies courses from world history to economics to government. I was a good teacher, but I don’t know that I’d ever call myself an “expert”. There were teachers who were better at the “jargon”, and better at the paperwork. And there were teachers who did a better job of communicating with parents. I was good, and I knew my subjects and I knew kids – but I don’t know if I was an “expert”.
And I spent forty years coaching track and field. I earned a Masters Degree in the sport. Then, I spent years coaching every event, from shot put to long distance. I had success in almost every area, but the most important thing I learned is to find other good coaches to work with, and let them do their job. After all those years, it’s hard to say if I was an “expert” in any one event, except maybe pole vaulting.
Pole Vault
The pole vault is that event where an athlete takes a long fiberglass pole, runs down towards a big foam mat, and uses the pole to jump over an increasingly higher bar. I started coaching the event in 1982, because I couldn’t find the “good coach” to work with. I focused on learning the event, serving a kind of broad apprenticeship with some of the best coaches in the United States.
We had a lot of success, and after all the years, I might be considered an “expert” in high school pole vaulting. At least, I’m “expert” enough for the state coaches organization to let me teach pole vault safety to coaches all across the state. And I’m “expert” enough for the lawyers that are looking for pole vault “expert” testimony – though they don’t know anything about pole vault. It’s easy to be an expert compared to them.
YouTube
Out on YouTube there are other pole vault coaches who claim to be “experts”. Some of them are, and a few are really the best in the world. But some of the other so-called “experts” are teaching techniques that will ultimately get someone killed. Pole vaulting has it dangers. After all, when you use a fiberglass pole to launch high into the air, you better do it right. There’s lots of ways to get hurt. But if you search YouTube long enough, you can find “experts” who ignore all of the acknowledged safety practices. They promise great success with their “new techniques”. But there is no “disclaimer” that they are dangerous, no “Fact Check” in pole vault warning you off.
All it takes to be an “expert” on YouTube (or the rest of the Internet) is a post or a website (just like mine). It’s like that in pole vault, and it’s like that in all sorts of even more dangerous activities as well. There are sites out there, on the Internet right now, that claim they have “all the answers” to the current pandemic. They “can prove” with “statistical studies” that ALL OF THE OTHER EXPERTS are wrong.
The Herd
They claim that COVID-19 is nothing more than the flu. They want us to just “let if go” and live our lives normally. Sure, people are going to die, but ultimately we will achieve “herd immunity”. Most of the population will be immune, or strong enough to survive infection. The rest – well – it’s just culling the herd, isn’t it? And meanwhile, we can go back to earning our livings, making money, and live what was our “normal” way of life.
Those YouTube “experts” have decided that all of the real experts, globally acknowledged experts like Tony Fauci who has spent decades fighting pandemics, are just wrong. And because of our hyper-partisan, conspiracy-seeking political environment today, those YouTube experts are gaining a following.
Who to Believe
Forces long before the Trump Administration attacked the reputation of our national institutions, like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes for Health. It has been politically expedient to say those institutions are corrupted by big business, and tainted with scandal. Even “experts” with heroic names, like Robert Kennedy Jr., have spent years attacking their credibility.
So I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that the YouTube “experts” are now calling on Americans to ignore those institutions and the real experts when in comes to COVID-19. After all, the disease has killed over 50,000 in just a couple of months. It has come close to overwhelming our healthcare system. It’s only through heroic efforts (even by the Trump Administration) that hospitals have managed the onslaught.
The real experts have shut down America, for the purpose of saving lives. But just like in pole vaulting, there’s someone on YouTube who can tell you how to do it better.
Better hope they don’t get you killed.
