People often assume that the objectivity of science requires it to be isolated from governmental politics. However, scientists have always gotten involved in politics as advisers and through shaping public opinion. And science itself – how scientists are funded and how they choose their research priorities – is a political affair. The coronavirus pandemic showed both the benefits and risks of this relationship – from the controversies surrounding hydroxychloroquine to the efforts of Operation Warp Speed allowing researchers to develop vaccines in less than a year.
In this context, it is understandable that many people began to doubt whether they should trust science at all. As a historian of science, I know that the question is not whether science and politics ought to be involved – they are already. Rather, it is important for people to understand how this relationship can produce either good or bad outcomes for scientific progress and society….
After the Truth Shower – Webinar on the Pandemic. April 26 2020
I Am a Mad Scientist. By Kate Marvel
JOSH DZIEZA – Save the Honeybee, Sterilize the Earth
We’ll find a treatment for coronavirus – but drug companies will decide who gets it
10 Theses on the Proliferation of Egocrats (1977)
‘We did it to ourselves’: scientist says intrusion into nature led to pandemic
The champions of capitalism are refusing to admit their ideology has failed
After the truth-shower 