Trust in scientists has seldom been more crucial than now.
Trust in scientists has seldom been more crucial than now, with people having to make large-scale lifestyle changes based on guidance from experts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With scientists and those in the medical profession becoming increasingly visible in local and global media, this exposure appears to have had a positive effect.
The proportion of people expressing a high level of trust in scientists in their countries has increased in almost every region in the past two years, rising nine percentage points between 2018 and 2020 to 43 per cent globally.
This data is reported in the Wellcome Global Monitor for 2020 , which delves into the impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods, and people’s views on science. It follows Wellcome’s 2018 Monitor, its first on public attitudes to science and health worldwide.
Understanding how people around the world view science and scientists is critical to efforts to ensure widespread public attention to and compliance with scientific recommendations in future crises. — Wellcome Global Monitor 2020
With the pandemic emerging between the two surveys, the latest report provides insight into what impacts the situation has had on people’s attitudes, as well as on their lives.
Conducted as part of Gallup’s World Poll of attitudes and behaviours, the study was compiled via a survey of more than 119,000 people in 113 countries and territories in late 2020 and early 2021, at the same time as COVID-19 cases ramped up in many locations around the world.
This interactive visualisation explores the key outcomes from the study, evaluating findings in three focus areas – trust in science, the economic consequences of COVID-19, and levels of public support for global spending on preventing and curing diseases.
Building trust
East and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Americas and Eastern Europe all saw rises of at least 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2020 in the proportion of people expressing a high level of trust in scientists in their countries.
And globally the number of people professing a high level of trust in science itself rose to 41 per cent, from 31 per cent in 2018.
“Trust is so important, both in science and in our health systems, and in governments, to ensure that public health can deliver,” says Beth Thompson, associate director of policy at Wellcome. “So, undoubtedly, it’s important that we develop that trust wherever we can around the world.”
The report findings also support the idea that growing trust is linked to scientists’ increased visibility in the media. “[It’s] particularly gone up among people who said they don’t know as much about science to start with,” says Thompson. “That could support the idea that it’s because people didn’t see a lot of science and didn’t have much access to it [before], and now, through the pandemic, they’ve had more exposure.”
But despite the positive picture overall in trust in scientists and science by region, there were two notable exceptions that upset the general trend in both categories – Sub-Saharan Africa and the Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia region. In both these regions, the figures fell between 2018 and 2020, dropping for scientists from 24 to 19 per cent and 34 to 28 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, figures ranged widely between countries: in Benin and Nigeria, just under 10 per cent of people surveyed expressed a high level of trust in scientists in their countries, compared to 72 per cent in Belgium, the highest globally.
Trust levels appear linked to perceptions of national government, says Wellcome, with those trusting their government 13 percentage points more likely to have high trust in scientists. In Nigeria, less than five per cent of people had high trust in government.
Trust is so important, both in science and in our health systems, and in governments, to ensure that public health can deliver. — Beth Thompson, associate director of policy, Wellcome
Worldwide, trust in scientists was almost as great as the 45 per cent figure for those expressing high levels of trust in doctors and nurses. This is noteworthy because, while doctors and nurses are still more trusted than scientists, the gap narrowed considerably from Wellcome’s 2018 report, even though trust in the medical profession also rose three percentage points between the two reports.
Trust in journalists and national governments also increased, though again, not as much as for scientists and science. However, trust for people in one’s neighbourhood fell, from 34 per cent to 29 per cent.
Broadening economic disparities
While COVID-19 seems to have had a positive impact on trust levels, the Global Monitor also shows the extent to which the pandemic has exacerbated economic disparities.
Almost half of workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries reported losing a job or business due to COVID-19, compared with a third globally and just a tenth in high-income countries.
Within countries, too, the economic gap widened. Globally, 41 per cent of those receiving the lowest 20 per cent of in-country incomes lost business, almost double the proportion among the richest fifth of people. In Latin America, the disparity was as much as triple.
Seven countries saw more than half of people losing a job or business, reaching two-thirds in the Philippines and Kenya. In Kenya in 2020, Wellcome highlights that almost three-quarters of people reported periods when they had insufficient money to buy food for their families.
Over half of people in seven countries reported losing a job or business due to COVID-19.
This backs up previous reports that have indicated how quickly such effects took hold in some countries, with 48 per cent of rural households in Kenya and 87 per cent in Sierra Leone facing missed meals or reduced portion sizes as early as April 2020 – just a month or so after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.
The impacts of COVID-19 have been “deeply inequitable”, says Thompson. “We knew that those impacts were there, but I hope that by having more data it re-emphasises the importance of dealing with those inequities… We have to understand the inequities that people are facing and the situation that they’re living in to stand a real chance of tackling any of the big issues that are facing people.”00:00/01:30
Beth Thompson, associate director of policy at Wellcome, explains the issues behind the figures
At the same time, people in a number of low-income regions with large rural populations were among the likeliest to say their lives had not been affected by the pandemic, including Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Central Asia.
The figure was as high as 61 per cent in Laos, compared with just 19 per cent globally. Meanwhile, 45 per cent of people worldwide said their lives had been affected a lot by COVID-19.
Attitudes on disease prevention
One of the biggest questions is how countries should prepare together for the next pandemic, after COVID-19 put a spotlight on the vulnerability of today’s interlinked world. Key to this are attitudes on how spending on disease prevention should be directed globally.
With that in mind, Wellcome asked people how much they agreed with two separate statements – whether they thought their national government should spend on preventing diseases wherever they hit; and whether their government should spend only if their own country is at immediate risk.
However, there appeared to be some uncertainty over the statements, as at least 70 per cent of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with both – including notable majorities in regions including South Asia, East Asia and Latin America.
Some countries saw big gaps between those who agreed with each statement. In Norway, 85 per cent agreed the government should spend wherever diseases hit, compared with 33 per cent saying this should only happen if it affected their own country. In Tunisia, meanwhile, it was the reverse, with figures of 38 and 87 per cent.
The need for international cooperation to prevent diseases will be an important consideration going forward, says Wellcome, citing the call by a G20 panel for new investments and mechanisms for international pandemic-focused financing, and analysts who argue for pandemic preparedness as a “global public good”.
But more progress is needed, says Thompson, with public attitudes set to be a crucial component of how this all shakes out in the future. “Global cooperation is the only way we’re going to solve huge challenges like COVID and, ultimately, politicians are accountable to their electorates in democracies,” says Thompson.
That means the need for public buy-in, with data like Wellcome’s helping evaluate this, she says, adding: “We hope this empowers the people in those different regions and within their countries to dig into the data to explore how it can be useful for them and what they might be able to take from it.”
ARYAN'S BLOG 