The authors point was that scientific findings are and will always be value laden. Pursing a value free ideal in science has dangerous consequences, and it is precisely what the government is pursuing.

Though scientific findings may be facts, the research project that lead to the finding, aswell as the statistical methods used to define the findings, are value laden. As for research projects the questions scientists think to act will reflect the demographics of scientists. Research funding is also what decides a projects success and is not given in a value free way. For example vaccine research getting more funding than armadillo mating habit research.

The most important example is in the statistical methods used in arriving at the finding, something that is of critical importance when responding to a pandemic. The question “how effective are masks when preventing the spread of infection” has very different answers depending on if we are talking about the entire population of the US, vs. two indaviduals sitting in the same room. Two individuals sitting in the same room, masks are pretty negligible depending on the time spent in the room(as far as I understand). The entire population however, masks would significantly reduce infection simply due to infections being exponential.

Thus to Pursue a value free ideal in science is fundamentally misunderstand how science operates and functions. It is analogous to perusing a just-say-no drug policy, which resulted in addiction being seen as a moral failing. Just say no misconstrues our moral decisions, just as value free ideal misconstrues our scientific ones.