Led by the Science

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1 • 885 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2020

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic the UK government has stated that its decisions have been “led by the science”. This pithy phrase implies there is a fixed body of knowledge from a consensus of scientists that provides a road map of what to do to stop the pandemic. But there isn’t.

And if decisions made by politicians turn out not to work, then who gets the blame? Is it the science?

While some scientists have willingly appeared in support of the actions announced, many researchers are furious with the way that the government has used science. They point out that scientists from different disciplines have different expertise to bring to the discussions about what to do in a pandemic caused by a novel virus. Public health doctors say that their experience of local communities has been ignored in favour of mathematical models. Virologists feel their knowledge of how infection works has been sidelined. And psychologists believe the government has taken the idea of nudge as the only way to understand the behaviour of the population. Scientific knowledge changes through debate and discussion, in particular when we are confronted by a novel situation.

Philip Ball explores the relationship between science and political decision making in the pandemic.

Producer: Alex Mansfield for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.
0:05.0	The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.
0:09.0	And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.0	The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.5	The IRA inmates who found a way.
0:14.5	I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path
0:19.5	through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.
0:25.0	The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
0:28.5	Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:34.0	BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:39.0	Hello, it's me, Greg Jenner,
0:42.0	that bloke from that funny history podcast, you're dead to me.
0:45.0	Big news, we are back.
0:47.0	Once again combining the talents of comedians and expert historians as we explore stuff like ancient Egyptian pyramids, Genghis Khan and 19th century vampire literature.
0:56.0	Search for your dead to me on the BBC Sounds app.
1:00.0	Hi, I'm Riana Dillon and you're listening to another seriously great
1:05.0	podcast from BBC Radio 4. Our response is built upon the bedrock of the best possible scientific and medical advice
1:21.7	so that we can take the right steps at the right time.
1:26.6	At each point, throughout our response to coronavirus, at each point we've been following
1:30.9	the scientific best possible scientific. We have been following the scientific best possible scientific we have been following the scientific been following scientific and medical advice and medical advice and medical advice and we've been very deliberate in our actions we have been deliberate in our actions and we've been very deliberate in our actions.
1:42.8	We have been deliberate in our actions and we've been deliberate in our actions.
	...

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