Public Trust in Science During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Dangers of a Partisan Divide Ayushi Hegde
O
n February 12, 2020, Pew Research published an article commemorating the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Titled “Key findings about Americans’ confidence in science and their views on scientists’ role in society,” the piece was not intended to be groundbreaking. It summarized a series of surveys that spanned nearly four years, taken by the Fact Tank in an ongoing effort to study long-term trends in Americans’ perceptions of the scientific community. Yet its major findings—that public trust in scientists is often higher for ‘those on the left,’ and that ‘many cite lack of public understanding as a problem for science coverage’—could not have felt timelier. When the report was released in mid-February, the outbreak that would become the COVID-19 pandemic was in its earliest stages. The U.S. had reported its first case on January 20 and its first death on
February 6 [2]. In the months that followed, as the nation began a precipitous climb to its initial peak, questions about the role of science in American life took on an increasingly urgent tone. Images of Americans flouting social distancing guidelines— beaches packed with partying college students, a biotechnology conference in Boston and a funeral in Georgia later acknowledged as a superspreader event—were shared by news organizations and on social media [3]. Their underlying message was clear: at least in the United States, the seriousness of the pandemic was a product of Americans’ unwillingness to slow its spread. While the images shared on social media weren’t wholly representative of Americans’ attitudes toward COVID-19, their implications were not unfounded. Data collected by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health during the early months
Beachgoers photographed in Clearwater, Florida on March 17, 2020 [4].
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