Twelfth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been a challenge to global health but also to how science is regarded in a diverse and often polarized society, especially in the United States. The latter challenge specifically pertains to how science is utilized to inform public policies on tackling the pandemic. Two opposing poles have emerged in response to COVID-19 vis-à-vis science’s public status. The first pole involves scientific experts who influence public policies in terms of individual and social behavior, such as masks, lockdowns, and vaccination, while the second pole includes those who espouse anti-science rhetoric and are generally labelled as anti-vaxxers. Specifically, what has surfaced during the pandemic is the clash of values between the scientific and social sectors. The main scientific value is public health and involves obtaining precise information on the biology of the virus and its transmission and virulence. With such information, measures, such as vaccine development, can be developed to stem the spread and lethality of the virus. The chief social values of a dissenting and skeptical public, such as anti-vaccine activists, pertain to individual freedom and autonomy or independence. Governmental measures, like mandatory vaccination based on science, have certainly clashed with these values. In other words, anti-vaccine activists bristle at the government’s directive for compulsory vaccination for returning to pre-2019 behavior. In this paper, I explore this clash of values and propose that additional values, particularly environmental health, benevolence, welfare, and humility, are necessary for bridging the gap between the two opposing poles.