Follow *the* science?

On the marginal role of the social sciences in the COVID-19 pandemic

verfasst von

Simon Lohse, Stefano Canali

Abstract

In this paper, we use the case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe to address the question of what kind of knowledge we should incorporate into public health policy. We show that policy-making during the COVID-19 pandemic has been biomedicine-centric in that its evidential basis marginalised input from non-biomedical disciplines. We then argue that in particular the social sciences could contribute essential expertise and evidence to public health policy in times of biomedical emergencies and that we should thus strive for a tighter integration of the social sciences in future evidence-based policy-making. This demand faces challenges on different levels, which we identify and discuss as potential inhibitors for a more pluralistic evidential basis.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences

Externe Organisation(en)

Universität zu Lübeck
Politecnico di Milano
University of Johannesburg

Typ

Artikel

Journal

European Journal for Philosophy of Science

Band

11

Anzahl der Seiten

28

ISSN

1879-4912

Publikationsdatum

12.2021

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Philosophie, Wissenschaftsgeschichte und -philosophie

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 3 – Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00416-y (Zugang: Offen)