In a paper released in January titled “Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online,” MIT researchers Crystal Lee, Tanya Yang, Arvind Satyanarayan, and Graham Jones along with Wellesley College’s Gabrielle Inchoco attempt a deep dive into the topic of how “activist networks use rhetoric of scientific rigor to oppose public health measures.” But although they do try to link “anti-maskers” and other pandemic measure-skeptics to so-called climate deniers, Christian fundamentalists, and Trump supporters, they also give us a grudging measure of respect for our success at using real data in a powerful way.

“This paper investigates how pandemic visualizations circulated on social media, and shows that people who mistrust the scientific establishment often deploy the same rhetoric of data-driven decision-making used by experts, but to advocate for radical policy changes,” the introduction reads. “Using a quantitative analysis of how visualizations spread on Twitter and an ethnographic approach to analyzing conversations about COVID data on Facebook, we document an epistemological gap that leads pro- and anti-mask groups to draw drastically different inferences from similar data. Ultimately, we argue that the deployment of COVID data visualizations reflect a deeper sociopolitical rift regarding the place of science in public life.”

"Nevertheless, it moves." -- Galileo