The relationship between politics, science and society is playing an increasingly prominent role in rising to the challenges of modernity. A strong alliance of political institutions, scientists, experts and citizens is essential to defeating the global pandemic, but also an essential prerequisite for the success of policies aimed at inverting the advance of climate change and introducing new technologies and new solutions for boosting the quality of life, prosperity and wealth of modern societies.
The world of innovation certainly makes no exception when it comes to medicine, from digital health to the complete adoption of therapeutic innovations such as gene therapy. In the absence of a healthy collaboration involving all actors, major innovations risk serious delays in reaching users – citizens and patients alike – due to lengthy procedures unable to keep up with the pace of innovation, a tell-tale sign of policy lagging behind scientific progress.
The relationship between citizens, science and society has become complicated over recent years, with misinformation, fake news, unscientific thinking, cognitive distortion, the polarized debate on scientific themes and the insufficient ability of experts and scientists to inform (at times TV interviews and talk shows do more to confuse than explain). All elements that have contributed to creating obstructions to the climate of trust needed for systematic scientific efforts and targeted political measures, which the Covid-19 emergency has demonstrated.
In fact, the relationship itself between science and politics began to short-circuit once science-based policy began to restrict individual freedoms during the first Covid-19 wave, and later deviating from those same scientific recommendations when suggesting precautionary approaches for mitigating the impact of the (expected) second wave, and the results are there for all to see.
In order to invert this worrisome trend in the spread of anti-scientific practices – afflicting Western nations with advanced economies, in particular – and reinstate collaboration and trust, everyone is going to have to do their part. Policy-makers will be called upon to re-establish a collaborative relationship with scientists and experts with the help of dedicated supervision on specific issues such as healthcare innovation. Scientists and experts must play an educational role, improving their communicative abilities and contributing to debunking the spate of fake news circulating on social media sites. Policy-makers, scientists and citizens must all collaborate on building a collective scientific base accompanied by the appropriate instruments to combat widespread misinformation and scientific illiteracy.