Comment by marshray

> Galileo's heliocentric model

Copernicus, but "close enough".

Yep. The planets do not, in fact, revolve around the Sun. They revolve around the solar system center of mass (barycenter). This is an error of about 0.25 degree viewed from Earth which was significant at the time.

> Hand washing prevents illness

Did the person who we credit for hand washing advocate for it because he was "crazy", or because he had a well-founded theory?

> COVID came from a lab, not a wet market

The lab-leak theory has not held up to scrutiny. It is considered refuted. Though IMO the initial backlash was excessive.

> Hunter Biden laptop was real

No one outside of politics said the laptop "wasn't real", many emails were cryptographically authenticated very early on. There was a great deal of concern by experts that a coordinated disinfo op was being played into the election. It was, though probably not with the involvement of foreign actors this time. Nothing about that laptop ended up being relevant to the Presidential candidate actually running for election.

> And then a counter example of something broadly accepted but untrue. The humoral theory and blood letting, practiced for thousands of years. This is what killed George Washington.

We're talking about examples of things a "crazy uncle" might believe that turned out to be true. These are just abandoned pre-scientific medical theories and treatments.