Follow *the* science?
On the marginal role of the social sciences in the COVID-19 pandemic
- authored by
- Simon Lohse, Stefano Canali
- Abstract
In this paper, we use the case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe to address the question of what kind of knowledge we should incorporate into public health policy. We show that policy-making during the COVID-19 pandemic has been biomedicine-centric in that its evidential basis marginalised input from non-biomedical disciplines. We then argue that in particular the social sciences could contribute essential expertise and evidence to public health policy in times of biomedical emergencies and that we should thus strive for a tighter integration of the social sciences in future evidence-based policy-making. This demand faces challenges on different levels, which we identify and discuss as potential inhibitors for a more pluralistic evidential basis.
- Organisation(s)
-
Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences
- External Organisation(s)
-
Universität zu Lübeck
Politecnico di Milano
University of Johannesburg
- Type
- Article
- Journal
- European Journal for Philosophy of Science
- Volume
- 11
- No. of pages
- 28
- ISSN
- 1879-4912
- Publication date
- 12.2021
- Publication status
- Published
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
- Electronic version(s)
-
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00416-y (Access:
Open)
