PANDEMIC, POLITICS AND SCIENCE

CAN SCIENCE SURVIVE AND FLOURISH IN POLITICIZED AND DYSFUNCTIONAL SOCIETIES?

“Science without conscious is the death of the soul.” – Francois Rabelais (1494 – 1553).

When we look more closely at the current deadly pandemic severity and response to it, in the USA and the other countries of the world, like Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, India, South Africa, we clearly see that the pandemic response is socially and politically patterned.

By the same token, it appears that salient features that influence the pandemic‘s severity and response to it in these countries are closely related to economic inequality, social and ethnic discriminations, injustice and poverty. Even more importantly, it is related to the politics in that country, and politization of pandemic related issues, political divisions radicalization, and denial of science and scientific facts by the country’s leading politicians.

Politization of an issue by politicians means denying the facts, purposefully creating an atmosphere of suspicion about the issues at hand by giving misinformation or creating and stating their own facts or conspiracy theories, so that these crooked politicians can manipulate the issues to get more publicity, recognition and advancement for themselves. This in turn gets them more votes for their upcoming election. Truth doesn’t matter. Nothing is more important to them, than their own self -interest.

Politization of the pandemic caused many people to become confused and refused to get vaccinated, wear a face mask or follow other recommended preventative measures. These attitudes have seriously hampered the pandemic response. It is no surprise that pandemic struck the countries ridden with dirty politics, political divisions, poverty, inequality, and social injustice more ferociously.

Medicine and biomedical research, in a sense, are social science and social activities. Scientists, just like any of us, are people too and members of the same society. They are not immune to the ill-effects of politization of science, threats, bribes, intimidations, and the possibility of being fired from their job.

Real science and scientists exist and thrive only in free, just, and egalitarian societies. If there is a political polarization and anti-science attitudes in a society, science and scientists easily would take their work and their scientific innovations to other free and democratic countries.

The USA has been, the richest and most powerful country in the world, as well as considered to be the “mecca “of science, scientific innovations and biomedical research. However, in the last decade or so, especially with the election of President Trump, the USA has become one of the most flagrant countries with dysfunctional political system, cronyism, social and racial polarization and divisions and lost leaderships of the free world.

In polarized societies, partisan politics prevents rational and facts-based discourse, rational discussions, consensus of opinions about policy questions. Every real evidence, and every scientific fact always becomes colored by partisan politics and suspicion. The hard work of fact-based discussions, coalition building and compromising disappear. Dysfunctional status takes over every branch and every institution of the government. Astonishing failures of the government’s scientific institutions like CDC and FDA, the judicial system with political appointees, failed foreign policies, lost wars, human’s right abuse, torture (Guantanamo and Abu Garib), declining trust to the government and to fair and free election results, which become a political football to pass around, and even with criminal attempts to overturn the election results, as seen on January 6th could occur.

To me, these are the signs and symptoms of existing deep social pathology in the American social fabric. Pandemic has clearly exposed this pathology.  America has become a nation in decline. Even worse, as dictatorial regimes of the World claim, “this is an expected failure of liberal democracies.”

The question we must ask now is will our democracy survive, or are we going to slide into authoritarianism or descent into fascism, as his happening globally? Only time can tell.