Authors:
- A fresh and readable account of the Covid-19 pandemic and how scientists and medical doctors are helping governments to manage the crisis
- Reveals how some countries’ responses to the pandemic have been so much more effective than others’
- Contains interviews and exchanges with dozens of scientists, doctors, experts, government representatives, and journalists
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (4 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book is a fresh and readable account of the Covid-19 pandemic and how scientists and medical doctors are helping governments to manage the crisis. The book contains interviews and exchanges with dozens of scientists, doctors, experts, government representatives, and journalists. Why do some of the most scientifically advanced countries have the highest Covid-19 mortality? During the pandemic, the research community has been at the heart of—and actor in—a global scandal. Why has science failed? With the help of numerous testimonies from China, France, the UK and the USA in particular, the book provides an insider’s view on this major crisis. Although the governments of these countries based their Covid-19 strategy on science, scientists failed to have a decisive influence on decision-makers—except in China—, which created genuine “time bombs.” The accelerated development of vaccines does not erase past months’ errors. The crisis led to the development of “science politics”at an unprecedented rate. More worryingly, experts themselves acknowledge that they did not rise to the challenge. Covid-19 also highlighted the weakness of democratic regimes and the power of technocapitalism. Countries pulled down their blinds, locked their doors, and promoted national approaches rather than international cooperation. The author proposes to set up an international framework on health risk to co-construct decision-making. He advocates political distancing in order to put the basics first: develop science, fight ignorance.
The author, Michel Claessens on the Science for Policy Podcast from SAPEA
Authors and Affiliations
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European Commission, Bruxelles, Belgium
Michel Claessens
About the author
Michel Claessens holds a PhD from Brussels’ University. His background is physical chemistry and science journalism. He joined the European Commission in 1994 where has been acting Head of the Communication Unit in the Research Directorate-General, spokesperson for research, editor-in-chief of the research*eu magazine and in charge of the science and technology Eurobarometers until 2010.
In April 2011, Michel became Head of Communication and External Relations at the ITER Organization in Cadarache (France). He is now in charge of ITER policy and communication in European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy. In parallel, Michel also teaches science journalism and science communication at the University of Brussels.
Michel’s numerous publications include scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, books on science policy and science communication, many press articles and participation in science television programmes. His latest book,‘ITER, The Giant Fusion Reactor’ has been published by Springer. A specialist of science policy, science communication and public perception of science, Michel is an active member of international scientific networks (PCST, ESOF, etc.) and a frequent speaker at international conferences (Chinese Association for Science Communication, AAAS, TEDx, etc). He is currently developing a project on science culture bringing together fifteen teams of international experts.Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Science and Politics of Covid-19
Book Subtitle: How Scientists Should Tackle Global Crises
Authors: Michel Claessens
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77864-4
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Medicine, Medicine (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-77863-7Published: 29 June 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-77864-4Published: 28 June 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 216
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 7 illustrations in colour
Topics: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Sociology, general, Health Policy, Epidemiology, Virology