It’s tricky. Part of the problem, I think, is if you do have corruption and carelessness in something like the FDA, there’s no amount of careful reporting that can fix it - it becomes propaganda.

It’s necessary to address the problems, though I still agree with being careful about what information is broadcast and how - but it’s necessary to keep information open and challenge things otherwise you end up worse down the line. A measles epidemic is bad. But imagine if you suppressed thalidomide results and other failures, allowing things to get worse and worse in the name of not damaging people’s trust, then eventually (after years of covered-up harm) it all comes out and people abandon scientific medicine altogether!

You don’t have to imagine… I’m sure a large component of both vaccine skepticism and Trump’s presidency have come because of suppressed and partially-suppressed wrongdoing by all the people we think the country should trust. Eventually people break and look for something else.

So, I agree with you, but in my opinion we do need to work more, not less, at transparency and truth even when it’s problematic.