"Science"-- a much-abused term

We constantly hear the refrain “follow the science” or “trust the science.” The word “science” has become totemic and “anti-science” is invoked as a casual epithet these days much as “anti-Christian” was in the Middle Ages. To know when to label something “science” or “anti-science,” we must know exactly what science is. Science, by definition, is a method (not a conclusion or body of knowledge) consisting of three elements: 1) scientists, 2) developing hypotheses, and 3) testing them. We need all three elements for something to be “scientific.” If a group of scientists say something (e.g., “go to an anti-abortion rally”) that doesn’t necessarily make it science. If a bunch of scientists develop a model/hypothesis (“luminiferous ether carries light waves”), that doesn’t necessarily make it science. Much of what people call “science” today is mistaking one element of the three for science itself. The Imperial College Covid-19 model was not “science” because it had not been tested (and now that we have submitted its predictions to empirical testing, it has been falsified), and the claim by scientists that we should attend certain political protests was not science—just the non-scientific political opinion of certain practicing scientists.