When Science Meets Politics
Emma Hedley on fake news, experts and why we all need to learn about science.
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n the past few years we have heard time and time and again that people are tired of being told what to do by experts. To quote Michael Gove, ‘I think the people in this country have had enough of experts’. This is ironic in many regards as we rely on experts to advise us on many things in our daily lives, from doctors on our health, to mechanics for advice on car repairs. However, when scientists at the frontiers of their field inform
decisions in public policy this is often met with suspicion. This narrative is also very different from that surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the early stages, where politicians claim they are being guided by the science and offer this as reason to trust their decision-making. The complex nature of the pandemic means that the scientific expertise that must be drawn upon encompasses the physical and life sciences, as well as so-
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cial and behavioural science. However, this discussion is not limited in scope to the pandemic. There is a wider, more fundamental discussion to be had about how we translate scientific knowledge into public policy. In a democracy this requires general public support, which itself depends on public understanding of the science to build trust into presented scientific evidence. If for example an alien visited
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