A scientist is a payed researcher. Pretty sure they will do everything they can to find the results that the person paying them wants to see. Really tough for me believe anything from the CDC or any government entities now.
While I, as a scientist, would agree that there are unscrupulous people in the scientific field, much like any other field, I take great offense with such a broad characterization of the morals of the scientific community. In particular, most govt scientists are supported by the taxpayer through a salary and they don't need to grovel or get pushy at the trough like academics or consulting firms (sorry, Guy).
In general, a scientist is paid to answer questions using the scientific method. As is often the case, how the question is posed can really put a "direction" to the work and may leave other important questions unanswered. However, the vast majority of scientists I know will not sell their soul for a research grant; e.g arriving at a predetermined outcome. It's one of the most important reasons we scientists submit our work to our peers for official review. So to think that Dr. Joe Schmoe (who we might think has a financial interest in a given research project) can get nameless peers to review and concur with Schmoe's work when THEY AREN'T GETTING A CUT, seems to be a bit of a stretch of reasoning. Peer review is an important underpinning of the integrity of the scientific community.
Also, I would like to note that ethics in engineering and science were quite extensively incorporated into my coursework at UND.
- - - Updated - - -
IMO, this is a "Top-Down" credibility problem. Fauchi was supposed to be "The Guy" but he's full-180 contradicted himself multiple times. His explanations for his self-contradiction have been feeble. Full 180 contradictions have the appearance of political and/or $$ behind them, not public safety.
I guarantee you that I know less than .0000000000000000001% about viruses than Fauchi does but how do I believe "The Guy" when 1st he says it's like the flu and it'll be gone by summer, then says it'll be with us for 2-3 years? Then we have the, "Don't wear a mask", "WEAR A MASK!!!!!!", "Wear 2-3 masks".
That creates the situation we have now, some people say "Screw masks" and other say, "You're killing people". The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle but the "Experts" have changed their opinion and recommendations so many times that nobody believes them anymore.
Diametrically opposed instructions from the same source means that sooner or later, nearly everyone is going to believe you lied at some point and nobody is going to trust you.
Like many, I have issues with how the CDC and Fauci have done a poor job of justifying what seems to be an ever-changing position on masks, quarantine times, etc, etc. The bottom line is that we have learned a great deal in the past year about this virus and combined with supply constraints early on that prevented the use of masks by the general public (remember, we let the medical community have what was available). Hell, the asians have used masks in public as a way to limit person to person transmission of colds and flu since at least the mid-late 80s when I was over there, so we had already known for years that there was at least some benefit to masking the public during cold and flu season. The question was always "how much". Same thing with quarantine times, they chose to err on the side of caution early on, then reached a conclusion (with much more data) that those quarantine times could be adjusted, etc.
Like I said, I try to not be too hard on the "experts", but their messaging has sucked from Day-1.