How did we get here?
What broke the compact? Several researchers identified the response to the COVID pandemic as a flash point. Public health guidance flailed initially on questions of masking, school closures and frontline drugs. It also produced a good vaccine in under a year, an unheard-of success. Ultimately around a million people died of the disease within the first two years.
The experience damaged trust in science and scientists. It’s still high—the number of people saying they have a lot of trust in science has hovered around 77 percent for years. But it was 10 points higher before COVID, and it now splits hard along lines of political affiliation. “Especially in the U.S. and with social media, all of a sudden everybody was an expert on COVID. So much of it was just bullshit,” Andersen says. “And then at some point bullshit was all that was left.”
