Follow *the* science?

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

authored by
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.

Organisation(s)
Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences
External Organisation(s)
Universität zu Lübeck
Politecnico di Milano
University of Johannesburg
Type
Article
Journal
European Journal for Philosophy of Science
Volume
11
No. of pages
28
ISSN
1879-4912
Publication date
12.2021
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00416-y (Access: Open)