I’ve been told time and again to trust the experts, rather than my own research, knowledge and intuitions about matters of health. But who is telling me to do this? Largely it’s non-expert people who are following particular experts of their choosing. So plainly if I am to take their advice, I must ignore them, for they are not experts.
But if they are telling me, that means they believe I should heed their advice. On what basis? They must believe that while they are not experts at researching medical treatments, they are experts in judgment, i.e., experts in deciding what to believe and what not to believe, who to follow and not to follow.
How am I to decide if they are as expert as their logic implies? I could look at whether they have track records of being right in the past, whether they themselves are in good health, for example. But that would require me to be an expert in deciding who is an expert! Because if I deem them experts, but I lack the requisite expertise in expert-vetting, then by their own terms I should not trust myself to vet them.
The only solution to avoid being paralyzed by inaction then is to develop your own expertise in interpreting events rather trusting others to do it for you. While you might not be an “expert” right away, trusting one’s own judgment is the only way to get the requisite experience toward that end. Eventually, you will develop some acumen for sniffing out disingenuousness, reasoning from first principles rather than emotions and seeking truth rather than beliefs that comply with tribal edicts.