Jamil, I understand that people do not want to be inconvenienced so they grab on to any anti-science nonsense that comes along. It is human nature, confirmation bias. We have to acknowledge that.
I completely agree that admonishing others is a feckless gesture. Education should have been broader and comprehensive to overcome human inertia.
Let's hope we are coming out of this pandemic!
People aren't hurling experts at each other because they don't want to be inconvenienced. It's an issue of belief. It's people taking sides. Circling the wagons when attackers assault deeply held beliefs. But, calling them science deniers and hurling your own experts at them isn't helpful because they have their own experts. You just have more of them who are part of an establishment. Just that in itself biases many people against that point of view.
If you're qualified as a real ass expert who has some useful information to contribute, that's one thing. If there's something that your legal background can add to the conversation, all the better. But if you're just a person who is yourself following what the experts say that you believe, you're fighting a proxy war of knowledge. Average non-experts arguing science is like a game of Pokemon.
As it pertains to masks, I'm not a scientist who studies disease transmission. I'm only a lowly software engineer who is competent enough at logic to do that job. So that may be personally useful to me to figure out who is making a cogent argument. I also have a watch that measures my blood oxygen. Wearing masks do bring my blood O2 levels down a few points. Maybe you might try those experiments on yourself before you start hurling your experts at people.
Fauci is an expert. He admitted to lying for the greater good. Experts aren't infallible. They have agendas too.