Almost everybody wants to be seen as embracing science. That’s true whether they are arguing to take masks off or leave them on, or whether they’re pushing continued caution or a return to normal. The phrase “follow the science” has been used by the left to defend its COVID policies and lobbed back by the right with a dose of sarcasm.
But America’s pandemic polarization isn’t about recognizing the importance of science. It’s about what we do with that science, and when we decide to trade individual freedoms for collective safety.
Scientists can inform policy, of course, by collecting data and drawing inferences about risk. But it’s policy makers who have the hard job of deciding how to balance those risks against other health or quality-of-life factors. For example, science can tell us that about 1,000 children have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. making it around the 6th or 7th leading cause of childhood death, below accidents, cancer and homicide. But science alone can’t tell us what to do about it. Do we keep schools open or close them? Require students to wear N95 masks all day? Shaping policy requires balancing disease risk with less tangible factors like socializing and learning.
