On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a jobs report that upended the narrative pundits, journalists, government officials, and the White House had been repeating for months: The economy is doing just fine.

Thousands of invisible, far-reaching decisions flow from the stream of reports the BLS compiles. When faith in the government product is shaken, things go off-the-rails in short order; just look at how anti-science sentiments prolonged the Covid 19 pandemic, and helped set in motion a broader drop in vaccine rates.