What the Pandemic Is Telling Us About Science, Politics, and Values

For the past 30 years, I have tried to make sense of the interactions between science and politics, especially the challenge of making decisions under conditions of uncertainty and disagreement. Why—despite huge and ever-expanding bodies of relevant scientific research—is it so impossible to resolve disagreements around climate change, nuclear energy, mammograms, K–12 public education, chemicals in the environment, genetically modified organisms, nutritional guidelines, trade policy, and on and on? Why, despite all the research and expertise, do the opposing sides of these debates remain fixed in their values and interests, certain in their own version of the facts and immovable in their sense of what should or should not be done?

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the relation between science and politics is now at the center of the world stage. The novel coronavirus offers up a powerful and extremely clear lesson about the appropriate role of science in helping to guide us toward a better future—a lesson that sharply contradicts standard thinking about science and politics. Above all, we are learning that science’s place in politics is determined not...