After months of revelations about government working behind the scenes (both cooperatively and coercively) with online platforms to suppress disfavored speech, it's fair to assume that a federal official knows what he's saying when he calls for increased efforts to root out what he describes as "misinformation." That the official in question is the head of the FDA, which recently admitted to major missteps, calls for humility and more respect for the right to disagree with the powers that be.
"Life expectancy in the U.S. is between three and five years lower than the average in other high-income countries—and the gap comes in part from misinformation," Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told CNBC last week. The FDA head lamented America's standing relative to other developed countries and attributed it to bad information about vaccines, food, and lifestyle.
