Yes and no. Sometimes the popular opinion is very dangerous; sometimes the Scientific establishment itself may be wrong; e.g. the “Pyramid of Foods” was a total fiasco and the people responsible barely admitted the “crime” (they just retracted it silently) but for many years (and to this day for people not paying attention) the “Pyramid of Foods” is “scientific fact because scientific people told me so”.
Look at the work of Michel Foucault who was the expert at describing the establishment being occasionally part of tyranny (including the scientific official-establishment).