It's not necessarily the case that anybody is lying. Perceptions of fact can differ.
I believe that the two Brians sincerely want to get things right. I believe also that they don't really know what the best course of action is, and are trying to weigh all the different, frequently conflicting, advice that they are getting, and make the best choices. I'm not so sure that they are well-equipped to judge the advice.
But who actually knows what the best course of action is? If we look over the various discussions in this group, we will find a number of people making confident pronouncements and others being more cautious or reserved in expressing views. It looks to me as if those who make the confident assertions usually have less insight than those who are cautious.