• If I advertise Doctor Xavier’s Remedy for Toenail Fungus, but I have no evidence that it cures or relieves toenail fungus, the FDA and FTC will stop me from what is in effect false advertising. My reputation will be seriously damaged.
• Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, a lawyer, pushes new Covid booster despite absence of evidence of efficacy. No one will point out that his claims are unproven, much less try to stop them. His reputation, such as it is, remains unchanged.
Question: If a reputation remains unchanged despite damaging information, how bad was that reputation in the first place? This is a corollary of Murphy’s Law of Drunkards: If you are lying on the floor, you can’t fall down.
