Politics and the Science of COVID-19; Global Lessons

Abstract

Politics is essentially about who gets what, when, and how. It involves realization of power relations and activities for impartial welfare of a populace. The varied human appeals invariably demand that politicians or institution advocate for means that meet physical and related needs of the public. Science is distinctly about experiential truths and how these truths distress human lives. It is broadly an intellectual activity about the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the corporeal and the natural world through observation and experiment leading to uncovering germane truths. The correlation between the dual disciplines is consequently symbiotic and relates to the welfare of the populace. This relationship is deepened in times of calamities as well as in times of natural disasters like medical tragedies, famine, draught, and social obliteration. While politics seeks to ameliorate such crisis by seeking short-term remedies for partisan contentment or as long as politicians have power, science demands caution and empirical truths regarding the causes for such misfortunes and proposes scientific solutions to the crisis. These scientific veracities are timeless, meant to provide remedies to such emerging calamities. The contemporary case of COVID-19 has validated how these two fields have either complemented or controverted each other occasioning weighty apprehensions regarding human lives around the globe. This paper is descriptive in nature and seeks to isolate the global lessons learnt since COVID-19 as politics encounters science. It has relied on obtainable and emerging literature regarding the subject.