Listen to the scientists and doctors on COVID-19, not politicians and pundits

During this pandemic, we are reminded that we should “listen to the scientists”. I agree with this sentiment; we should listen to scientists. However, I find it ironic since Americans rarely listen to scientists, irrespective of their political colors- red, blue, purple or green. Instead, we listen to pundits who confirm our prejudices.

Scientists specialize in different disciplines. Biologists study the diversity and mechanisms governing life. Medicine is a practical application of biology. Chemists study the properties of matter. Geoscientists study physical aspects of the Earth. There are many scientific disciplines, but they all share common features of rigorous review of hypotheses, data and interpretations. When these hypotheses are consistently affirmed, scientists typically reach a consensus.

As a biologist, I know the rigor with which different disciplines are evaluated through peer-review and take the conclusions of peer-reviewed research seriously. Similarly, when a political issue carries a scientific aspect, I weigh the opinions of the scientific experts more heavily than I regard the views of scientific dilettantes, politicians and pundits.

When more than 99 percent of climatologists agree that greenhouse gasses generated by human industrial activity will cause global climate change, and when they correctly predict that human activity will increase the temperature of the Earth, melting glaciers and polar icecaps, and raising sea levels, I take that very seriously. Yet, even as the world raises its concern about these threats, American politicians, mostly on the right, fueled literally by the financial interests of the fossil fuel industry, opt to reject efforts to ameliorate this very serious problem.

When the consensus of immunologists agree that vaccines fight deadly infections, some, many on the left, charge that vaccines cause autism or other disorders, based upon discredited studies the scientific community had already expunged from the scientific literature as fraud. As a consequence, long forgotten diseases such as polio, measles and many others that had been eradicated through vaccination, have reared their heads among the parlors of Hollywood actors, organic gardens in Oregon, and slums in Pakistan. How ironic is it that all of us, from truck drivers in Iowa to teachers in Pennsylvania to emergency room nurses in New York to the President of the United States, a former anti-vaxxer himself, now pray for a vaccine against COVID-19?

Now we are at the precipice of a biomedical cataclysm. At this writing, more than 3 million people worldwide and more than 1,000,000 Americans have become infected with this great equalizer, a novel SARS-like coronavirus now called COVID-19. More than 70,000 Americans have left this mortal vale.

We are treated to daily updates from the President who angrily affirms he is doing a “great job”, that he is listening to the science. If this were the case, however, the United States, home to just 4 percent of the world’s population, would not be suffering from 33 percent of all cases of COVID-19 on Earth and 26 percent of the deaths!

At least two previous Presidents, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama, recognized this problem and had indeed listened to the science. Each of them created pandemic response teams and had partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to monitor potential sources of world-wide disease. When President Trump came to office, the pandemic response team was disbanded. In fact, the WHO warned the Trump administration of the danger of this disease in December 2019. The warning went unheeded.

Now, the President hawks snake oil treatments because he has “an instinct for this stuff”, and we all pray for a vaccine, the President included. Despite the considered warnings from most of our states’ governors to stay home, uneducated protesters, egged on by our President speaking out of both sides of his mouth, demand that restrictions be lifted, directly against the considered opinions of the scientists who know the subject best, and whom he employs. So, let’s listen to the scientists; it just may save our society and our civilization.

Vincent M Cassone is Gill Eminent Professor of Arts & Sciences, Chair of the Department of Biology, and Founding Director of the UK STEMCats program at the University of Kentucky.

This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 9:59 AM.