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Current controversy
Public justification and expert disagreement over non-pharmaceutical interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic
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  • Published on: 7 November 2021
    The response to COVID-19 of many countries has been dictated so far by the media, or better by those who control the media, rather than the scientists. To find a solution, scientists should be free of this conditioning

    Dahlquist and Kugelberg (2021) correctly notice as the many non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) which have been introduced to stop or slow down the COVID-19 pandemic through coercion are not publicly justified through a scientific consensus on the factual propositions that are used to support the policies, and as such, they would be illegitimate. It has been an unfortunate circumstance of this pandemic, that not only the NPIs but also the therapeutic approaches have been the subject of media misinterpretation, at the expense of a correct debate in between the scientific community, with scientists expressing opinions not welcomed by the media routinely abused for doing their work. Examples of policies lacking every scientific support, but still approved by the media, are everywhere. To find a working solution to the pandemic, definitively we do need free science “on the top”, rather than “on the tap” or even “on a leash”, limiting the interference by governments and corporations directly and through the media serving their interests. Misinformation by media is what has made the response to COVID-19 less effective than what could have been listening to the majority of the scientists. The response to COVID-19 of many countries has been dictated so far by the media, or better by those who control the media, rather than the scientists. To find a solution, scientists should be free of this conditioning.

    REFERENCES
    1. Dahlquist M, Kugelberg HD. (2021). Public j...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.

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