The relations between politics and science(s) during the Covid-19 pandemic

The still on-going Covid-19 pandemic has drawn a renovated interest in the relation(s) between politics and science. Media generally frame this relation as an antinomy between the expert words of science and the electoral interests of politics. Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump perfectly represent the two faces of this on-going narrative: the hero, the competence-driven immunologist, and the antagonist, the electorally-driven politician. While it is undeniable that incentives vary among actors, an often overlooked aspect concerns the relations within sciences and between different sciences and politics. Indeed, in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic, the real antinomy appears to be both within science, and between sciences: first of all, for instance, between economics and medical science, but also between medical science and psychology, environmental studies, communication (which plays a pivotal role during the pandemic) and many other scientific fields. First, it has to be considered that there are various - and sometimes contradictive - opinions among medical experts, virologists and immunologists. Disagreement is a core aspect of science (both “hard” and “soft”) and the very advancement of scientific research. However, disagreement becomes problematic when it is publicly broadcasted (or tweeted) 24/7, as it i. exposes the general public to confusing prescriptions, that have a very direct and variegated impact on individual behaviour and, thus, on public health, and ii. Fuels mistrust and the diffusion of fake news, misinformation and conspiracy theories. Second, the impending recession - probably the worst since WWII -, raising psychological and social tensions, will all further aggravate the distance between the prescriptions of medical and other sciences. Given this framework, it clearly emerges the peculiarity of politics: rather than being an antagonist of science(s), politics stands out as a mediator between them, trying to synthetize in the logic of power and consensus the tendentially single-issue instances urged by the different fields of knowledge. The Italian case offers a peculiarly apt object of study to investigate the variegated role of politics in mitigating, exploiting or antagonizing science and different sciences. Indeed, during the crisis, different political actors at any level (municipal, regional or national) interacted (or not) differently with scientists and experts of various disciplines. Through content analysis of both social and traditional media we aim at investigating this relation between political and scientific actors, and the effects on both the efficacy of containment policies and public opinion.