I've heard colleagues say that the solution to what's happening to American science is for scientists to communicate the value of science better. That's false. Trump is doing a lot of unpopular things, including destroying the science enterprise. What's happening is not our fault.
Most people believe in the values of democracy, but those values are being assaulted by this administration every day. 1/2
My experience of the 2020 pandemic was an immense amount of quality science being released and discussed by researchers and clinicians, but only a tiny fraction of the media who were skilled or bothered to present that with any degree of fidelity to their audiences.
The entire framing of "scientists need to communicate better" falls over when we look at who's making an effort to listen.
Mark Sumner, @Devilstower, formerly at DailyKos.com, currently writing at Uncharted Blue, was one those who did not just a competent job, but an outstanding job of conveying the complexity of the shifting epidemiological understanding of COVID-19.
Mark gave me confidence that I knew as much as could be known as the pandemic progressed.
The risk of contagion is highest in indoor spaces but can be reduced by applying all available measures to combat infection via aerosols. Here is an overview of the likelihood of infection in three everyday scenarios, based on the safety measures used and the length of exposure
@ewen @davidho the COVID science coverage by media was a shit show wherever I saw it. Largely scientists follow the evidence, and when pushed will always be clear that the result obtained was based on the best available evidence at the time which may change later. The general public expects science to be "right" all of the time and happily ever after, which isn't how it works.
Combine that with media "balance". If every actual scientist says something is a thing and the media people have to find a representative of the opposite view you don't get balance. You get false equivalence. On your TV show you have Professor Know-It-All discussing the science du jour with Barry Tinfoil who has cycling proficiency.
A general audience don't see it like that. The lay person sees a scientist who changes their mind (which they don't realise is evidence based) and Barry from next door who sounds like he knows what he's talking about, which makes him equivalent. Being confidently incorrect might sound good on TV but it doesn't mean the spewer is as knowledgeable as the scientist, but with a different view.
I did see a lot of good science comms in COVID but media let it down and the public missed the point. Don't get me started on "airborne", I'm wound up by thinking about how anyone but scientists think about science.
Well said.
Watching the disconnect between the scientific process and the media process gives me very little help for the future of mankind.
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