From Climate Change to the Coronavirus: What we can learn from public debates about science in the U.S.
The public conversation around COVID-19 has reinforced many of the existing dysfunctional patterns in American science and politics. The false dichotomies between economic concerns and meaningful action and the ideological and partisan divides of the COVID-19 pandemic are reminiscent of the stalemate surrounding climate change.
Climate change reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis of Gimlet Media joins UW-Madison science communication professor Dietram Scheufele to discuss what previous controversies around science in the U.S. can teach us about the ongoing fight over how to address the pandemic.