2024: the year of distrust in science

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, public trust in science significantly decreased, and it has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. This allowed the rise of ideologies that directly opposed widely accepted scientific guidance, including a spike in anti-vaccine beliefs, the increasing popularity of raw milk, and opposition to fluoride in drinking water. These viewpoints have gone mainstream as the country ushers in another Trump presidency.

How did the public lose trust in science?

Some of the recent lack of trust in science directly stems from the medical advancements made during the Covid-19 pandemic. "Future historians will judge the development of safe and effective mRNA vaccines for Covid in 11 months as one of the greatest medical achievements in human history," Francis Collins, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, said at The New York Times. Despite this, "ultimately more than 50 million adult Americans declined vaccination — even after the shots were made widely available at no cost."

Much of this came from the evolving nature of the pandemic which required rules and information to frequently change as researchers learned more about the virus. Eventually, "'the science' became the default explanation for setting pandemic-related policy," said F.D. Flam at Bloomberg. "Attempts to claim that policy simply 'followed the science' had the effect of confusing — and politicizing — the two. Those who opposed pandemic restrictions or requirements (often conservatives) were dismissed as anti-science." In turn, many lost trust in science and the government simultaneously.

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The politicization of science came to a head this year with more people willing to question what was generally accepted before. While 76% of Americans say they have a "great deal or fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the public's best interests," per a recent Pew Research poll, approximately 48% "say they should focus on establishing sound scientific facts and stay out of public policy debates." As a result, many have conflated science with a political standpoint.

How has this distrust affected society?

"Policy making is a much fuzzier business than science: It's a subjective practice that requires weighing competing facts and prioritizing some factors over others," said Flam. This leaves some people feeling as though their concerns are not being addressed. "The medical establishment often dismisses skepticism of vaccines and treatments as irrational fear," said IAI News. But "it can sometimes be rational to trust your friends and neighbors over distant experts."

Turning to different sources brought new unsupported ideas. "The biggest source of disinformation though, was the general public, with social media a key tool for spreading their views," Polish professor Dariusz Jemielniak, who is leading a project on vaccine skepticism, said to Science Business. "There is good research showing that anti-intellectual movements, distrust in science and anti-establishment thinking in general is on the rise, and that is coinciding with the growth of social media and authoritarian regimes meddling."

This allowed the rise of figures like Trump's nominee for the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "Health was a centerpiece of Kennedy's presidential bid, which he suspended over the summer. At the time, his key issues included reducing pharmaceutical companies' influence on government agencies, combating chronic health issues among children and improving food safety," said NBC News. "In promoting those causes, he put forward a mixture of ideas — some supported by science, others that have been debunked several times over."