The coronavirus pandemic has thrust the issue of scientific expertise to the fore of our public debates like never before. Coming on the heels of widespread popular discontent, our current crisis makes plain how central scientific expertise is to public policy, leading some to herald the end of populism. Yet, the government’s response has also inflamed popular anger with the expert class. And experts, for their part, have hardly remained above the fray. Over one thousand public health and medical professionals recently signed an open letter expressing support for “protests against systemic racism,” drawing the ire of many conservatives, who object that only a few weeks ago these same experts opposed protests against lockdowns for public health reasons.
Does coronavirus vindicate the importance of scientific expertise and its institutions? Or does it offer yet more evidence of the dangers of scientific elitism? We have, once again, divided into warring factions, with one’s attitudes about “the experts” playing proxy for partisan affiliations.
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