PUTTING SCIENCE IN PERSPECTIVE

MARCIA MCNUTT IS PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. Academy of Sciences (and, from 2013 to 2016, editor-in-chief of AAAS Science journals including this magazine).

McNutt writes an Editorial in Science, November 15, 2024, titled “Science is Neither Red Nor Blue.” Its many cogent insights address current events. Here are several gleaned from this Editorial.

The Importance of Science. “Long before the 5 November US presidential election,” McNutt writes, “I had become ever more concerned that science has fallen victim to the same political divisiveness tearing at the seams of American society. This is a tragedy because science is the best—arguably the only—approach humankind has developed to peer into the future, to project the outcomes of various possible decisions using the known laws of the natural world.”

This ability of projecting “outcomes of various possible decisions using the known laws of the natural world” is critically important—and is neither red nor blue. It is simply reality.

Covid, an Example. “Whether conservative or liberal, citizens ignore the nature of reality at their peril. A recent example is the increased death rate from COVID-19 (as much as 26% higher) in US regions where political leaders dismissed the science on the effectiveness of vaccines.”

I pause here to ponder the sheer idiocy of Trump’s picking an anti-vaccine advocate to the cabinet position monitoring health and human services.  

Science’s Challenge. “For starters,” McNutt says, “scientists need to better explain the norms and values of science to reinforce the notion—with the public and their elected representatives—that science, at its most basic, is apolitical. Careers of scientists advance when they improve upon, or show the errors in, the work of others, not by simply agreeing with prior work.”

On Science Improving Itself. This point of science improving itself calls for amplification. Again, Covid provides an example: Attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, were largely ignorant of changing conditions—and evolving knowledge—of this global infection’s early stages. 

Getting Politicized. In retrospect, Wikipedia writes, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci served under President Donald Trump as one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. His advice was frequently contradicted by Trump, and Trump’s supporters alleged that Fauci was trying to politically undermine Trump’s run for reelection.”

Yes, and Trump in the meantime was suggesting bleach as a curative.

Seeking Trust. “Scientists,” McNutt suggests, “should better explain the scientific process and what makes it so trustworthy, while more candidly acknowledging that science can only provide the best available evidence and cannot dictate what people should value.”

Fish, Farm, or Both? As an example, she says, “Science cannot say whether society should prioritize allocating river water for sustaining fish or for irrigating farms, but it can predict immediate and long-term outcomes of any allocation scheme. Science can also find solutions that avoid the zero-sum dilemma by finding conservation approaches to water management that benefit both fish and farms.”

Informing Decision-makers. McNutt says, “Although scientists must never shirk their duty to provide the foundation of evidence that can guide policy decisions and to defend science and scientists from political interference, they must avoid the tendency to imply that science dictates policy.”

She continues, “It is up to elected officials to determine policy based on the outcomes desired by their constituents. It is the role of science to inform these decision-makers as to whether those desired outcomes are likely to result from the policies being enacted.” 

And, of course, we as constituents must strive to understand implications of these actions. Thus far, some have been woefully inadequate in this. 

McNutt concludes, “The scientific community must fight scientific mis- and disinformation as though lives depended on truth and trust, because they do.” ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024