When a regular panelist on some television show is asked a question, they are expected to answer it or risk not being asked back to be a panelist on future shows.

Many of these panel members share some common attributes. They are young, camera ready and interchangeable “experts” on an endless variety of complex subjects. On Monday they are “experts” on immigration, Tuesday on China diplomacy, Wednesday on climate change, Thursday on banking/investing, Friday on energy policy and so on. Too often, they begin their comments with these words, “Listen, I think.” When we do listen, we soon discover that they don’t think and certainly don’t know.

The limit of their legitimate expertise becomes most obvious when it comes to matters of science and medicine. With this most recent pandemic (CORONAvirus) they are asked complex questions yet they “answer” in a self-assurance manner. Very few of those questions are answered with an honest “I don’t know.”

This current pandemic has introduced questions that genuine, trained experts in the field of immunology cannot answer. Even their answers often directly contradict the answers just given on that same panel by another qualified expert.

Then, here come the government people to alarm us and reassure us all in the same response.  The one thing these politically oriented spokespersons want to project is that they have all the answers. They don’t. Nobody has all the answers. We are moving down a road that has no reliable map. We will get where we want to go but there will be dead ends and delays created by “experts” encountered along the way.