The Limits to Science

Context: Science informed policies also need to appreciate their limitations and assumptions to lessen avoidable harms and unrealistic results.

Limitations of Science Informed Policies during Pandemic

• Premature and often inaccurate scientific predictions: during pandemic related to mortality and transmission of the virus.
• Skips the consideration of Societal Implications: Scientific proclamations based on myopic perspective and naïve observation with little attention to societal implications.
• Scientific recommendations for the imposition of lockdown have ignored its social implications.
• May lives are lost due to lockdowns:

• Routine vaccinations have been disrupted due to lockdown.  – UNICEF Study
• People dying from hunger exceeds that from COVID. – Oxfam Study

• Failure in devising new strategies: Billions of dollars allocated to fund dramatic scientific discoveries haven’t resulted in new strategies.
• For E.g. the current testing and diagnosis are still relied on the frontline worker trace their contacts, isolate them at home, and restrict movements in areas where clusters emerge.

Way Forward

• An inclusive approach to guide the pandemic control programme through community-based first-responders while implementing scientific principles.
• Responsibility of containment must be devolved to the ordinary citizen and the local authorities. 
• The success stories in India, from Kerala to Dharavi, also bear the hallmarks of such a strategy.
• Holistic Policymaking: Science informed policy actions must take into account the perspectives of the vulnerable community and observation from other disciplines also.

Conclusion: Scientific proclamations to predict an uncertain future and guide governments must rely on the historical, social, cultural and economic context of the problem.