Some people in my orbit suggested reading Robert F. Kennedy Jr's book The Real Anthony Fauci.

Here's my story of wading through a few pages of the book and trying to understand the basis of the claims. My takeaway: there's a lot of sloppiness here, and several times the book's claim isn’t supported by the citation.

Often, though, the citation is fine. The arguments are carried by shoddy science and massive leaps in causal attribution. For a lot of the anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown takes, there's at least some study by some scientists showing really bad effects. And the scientists are real—it's just a small sample or poor design.

Sorting things out honestly is hard, especially with bad faith actors using sloppy language to describe highly selected but serious-sounding findings. My notes on the text follow.