By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – August 15, 2021 According to the Webster's Pocket Dictionary, Trust, is the belief in the honesty, reliability, etc. of another. For us humans it has long been considered a cornerstone of human behavior in society. Necessary for the survival of human civilization, or some such flowery words. As we tend to look at our governments, the media, and yes our professional classes, doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, even the lowly garbage collector, that element of trust has begun to slip in the last few decades. While government officials, our representatives, and the media are leading the pack by a fairly significant margin, doubt has begun to emerge by a growing number of the public over the veracity of the "expertise" offered by our professional classes, doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc. With education under threat and increasing reports of malfeasance from teachers, the recent debacle surrounding the Pandemic and its mixed messaging from "experts" in the medical profession, coupled with the convoluted appearance of our legal and judicial system, it becomes hard to know whether professionals should continue to receive the levels of trust they have always enjoyed. When it comes to gleaning enough reliable information to make an educated decision on how to proceed when faced with a medical decision, or belief in a scientific observation, it is not always the easiest of decisions to make. We have relied on our scientists, teachers, and doctors to have the necessary education and experience to point us in the correct direction for centuries. As science, medicine and even education have become expanded to the point that most professionals have but a generalized impression of their over all field of expertise and generally rely on the community of practitioners to come to some sort of pronouncement. Science, for instance, has always been described as a "very messy business", the trials and tribulations very often do not lend themselves to a clear path to the ultimate solution, if that ever becomes a reality. It should be understandable for medical practitioners to know that when confronted by a new phenomena, such as the Covid Virus, that pronouncements that seem to have no scientific validity do not help foster the kind of trust that is necessary for belief by the entire community. Because medicine and its purveyors have had a long standing element of trust in their dealing with the public primarily due to their obvious success in many areas of medical treatment, it does not preclude many very public failures during its long and storied history. In this time of the current Pandemic it does the trust element of the medical community great harm when various precautions are mandated and the public is threatened with compulsory edicts when the "science" being referred to is questionable at best and in practice does not appear to achieve the advertised results. In recent years the public has been literally bombarded with advice from the "expert class", such that every day perception of that advice, from individual experience, does not equate to the catastrophe of the day that is trumpeted far and wide. It is past beginning to feel like the little boy that cried wolf! It is understandable that most people do not have the necessary expertise to determine what is fact and what is fiction, but if people in the various fields of professional study, doctors, scientists, teachers, etc. wish to remain honest, reliable, and most importantly trustworthy, there is work to be done! The unwashed may not recognize a charlatan immediately, but given time the obvious will be revealed. The medical practitioners of the Pandemic had better get their stories straight quickly or medical science will not regain the public trust any time soon.