Unlike previous public health emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic had unmistakably partisan overtones. Politics exerted an unhealthy influence on how governments, scientists, reporters and ordinary Americans responded as SARS-CoV-2 swept across the world and upended our lives for the better part of four years. What went wrong and what can we learn from it?
Vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit joins Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein on Episode 67 of the Science Dispatch podcast to answers these questions and discuss his new book:
As a pediatric infectious disease specialist and member of FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee, Offit had a front-row seat as the COVID shots were developed in record time using a novel technology, then rapidly distributed to hundreds of millions of Americans. This, he says, was the greatest scientific accomplishment of his lifetime.
Nevertheless, about 30 percent of the US refused to take the vaccine. Why was there such widespread skepticism of the shots? Offit says the federal government, under both the Trump and Biden Administrations, made critical mistakes in communicating the risks and benefits of vaccination during the pandemic. He puts forward some commonsense solutions that could prevent a similarly hostile response in the future.
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