Coronavirus: are governments really listening to ‘the science’?

Scientific knowledge is often irrelevant to policy making, argues Nottingham professor

Matt Hancock
Health Secretary Matt Hancock attends the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital at ExCel London
(Image credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Reiner Grundmann, Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Nottingham, looks at how far decisions on coronavirus are really being led by science in an article originally written for The Conversation.

The UK government has consistently argued that its approach to the Covid-19 epidemic follows the best scientific knowledge available. To the average person, it sounds reassuring. But it relies on the widespread belief that there is a correct scientific answer to a problem, and that governments simply need to be led by “the science”.

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