"Our study finds that 67% of individuals with Long COVID are developing dysautonomia. That’s an estimated 38 million Americans with Long COVID dysautonomia, and millions more around the world,” says Lauren Stiles, President of Dysautonomia International and Research Assistant Professor of Neurology at Stony Brook University.
"We need the National Institutes of Health to immediately address this crisis and begin funding research aimed at developing effective treatments for Long COVID dysautonomia,” says Jacqueline Rutter, a Dysautonomia International Board Member whose family has been impacted by Long COVID.
I do think this is more an issue with science communication broadly than string theory specifically - every field has its own examples, and medicine is notorious for it - but she is right that scientific researchers (the subject matter experts) have a responsibility to accurately communicate their work when speaking to the public.
Its one thing for an enthusiast to inadvertently oversell a concept to the public as fact because they are excited and only understand at only a basic level. It's another entirely for someone who's been researching that concept for 30-40 years, with the express intent of proving or disproving its validity, to oversell it as fact when they're whole job is to be intimately familiar with its shortcomings. They, of all people, should know better - and that means they have a responsibility to do better.
Science does get messy, by design, but it is the duty of those who communicate their science to be honest about that messiness, not mask it by unfounded statements to sell their ideas to people that don't have the research expertise to spot the falsehoods.