Policymaking as narrative
Policymaking is a contact sport involving competing narratives (about
problems, how they arose, and how they will be resolved), institutions
(especially government and its bureaucratic machinery) and interests
(financial, political, ideological).1 2 Policy
may—ideally—“follow science” but a key question is whosescience and why? Science shapes policy narratives via an “inside
track” (e.g. official advisory committees) and to a lesser extent by an
“outside track” (e.g. less mainstream scientists, citizen
movements).3
Pandemic policymaking has been characterised not by clearly-identified
knowledge gaps which science obligingly fills but by toxic clashes
between competing scientific and moral narratives. Policymakers have
risked losing control of the “dramaturgy of political communication”
(page 784).
Getting the mode of transmission for a contagious disease right matters,
because preventive strategies follow (Table 1).5 Being
honest about scientific uncertainty also matters, because—among other
reasons—it is hard to back-track after declaring a policy
“evidence-based”.