I’ve spent my life exploring the world in various ways. From my love of nature and the outdoors to my career as a social scientist, I’ve spent much of my life trying to understand the natural and social forces around me.
Although I am “just” a social scientist, as my chemist daughter often points out, I still approach the quest for knowledge using data and methods of analysis drawn from the science we are all taught in school from a very young age.
That approach — observe, measure, experiment, repeat — is the foundation of how we learn and grow as children, but is also fundamental to how we solve societal problems or, for that matter, attack the COVID-19 pandemic. We rely on science and its structured analysis to determine the most informed actions we can take to solve the problems we face.
Today, however, we are watching the end of science. Yes, I admit that I am a card-carrying member of the academic, Northeastern “elite” that President Donald Trump and his supporters so often rail against. We like facts; we try to make decisions based on collecting the best information we can find and listening to the experts around us; and we try to put our egos aside when we are confronted with data or advice that contradicts our expected outcomes or preconceived ideas about problem solving.
But the longer we watch the COVID-19 pandemic evolve in the United States, we are confronted with the recurrent unsettling sense that science is viewed at best with skepticism by our decision-makers in the White House and by a small but significant group of Republican governors.
Like many people sheltering at home these days, we watch as the Trump-Fauci feud simmers, as do so many other Trump feuds. We know who is right, but we also know who will likely win.
We heard a target of Easter for reopening of the economy; then the end of April; and now governors like Greg Abbott of Texas are detailing plans to protect “lives while restoring livelihoods.” Each of these efforts to equate lives with livelihood flies in the face of the science of the disease’s spread and its potential resurgence in the months ahead. None of us like sheltering in place, but I’d much rather follow Dr. Anthony Fauci’s advice than someone who is more interested in reelection prospects and feeding his insecure ego over public health.
The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the only policy arena where we are witnessing colossal science-denial. Those who don’t “believe” in climate change are not only denying the science. They are denying the basic scientific method that has led to breakthroughs for millennia.
We are able to navigate our world, use it for our enjoyment and, yes, also commercial gain because scientists — whether Galileo or DaVinci, Newton or Einstein or so many more luminaries — discovered basic scientific facts that have allowed humans to manipulate the bio-physical world. Without such discoveries and more basic ones, like fire or the wheel, we certainly wouldn’t be working from home with high speed internet and staying connected via Zoom meetings, parties and virtual arts extravaganzas right now.
But what is most troubling about the death of science is just how dangerous it is. Easter gatherings at churches around the country were just daring the emergence of new virus hot spots. Those flouting the stay-at-home guidance do so perhaps for their own personal gain and are certainly at odds with scientific and public health expertise.
More importantly, they do so by not only risking their own lives but also those with whom they might come in contact in the following days and weeks. These people may view COVID-19 as a liberal hoax, but it won’t just kill the liberals, as we have seen over and over again of late. And even for a longtime church goer like myself, prayer is good, but good science is essential.
Most broadly of all, though, is the simple truth that the end of science will also lead to the decline and ultimate demise of the United States as a world power. The United States was born through innovation. It was a central player in the advances of the Industrial Revolution and a major player, if not the central one, in technological change globally for over a century. Without science (and its child, innovation), we wouldn’t have the assembly line, vaccines, the microchip and so much more. And frankly, without recurrent sociopolitical innovation, we wouldn’t have the longest-running democratic system of government in modern history.
But without basic science, how can we innovate and prosper economically? How can we fight COVID-19 without either treatment or vaccine? And how will we tackle the next challenge facing our society once the current pandemic is past?
In the end, while Trump spews forth “America First,” science denial by him and his supporters will lead us further toward American decline and the demise of the American dream, which was built on science, innovation and creative problem-solving.
I shudder to think where we will be if we have to endure another four years of this senseless rejection of science and the solutions it provides to society each and every day.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Mark A. Boyer is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor at the University of Connecticut and the executive director of the International Studies Association.
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