We Need Social Science, Not Just Medical Science, to Beat the Pandemic

By Nicholas Dirks, Member (1989–90) in the School of Social Science:

"When the sociologist Alondra Nelson was named as the new deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, she noted that the pandemic had 'held up a mirror to our society, reflecting … the inequality we’ve allowed to calcify.' She also noted that 'science is a social phenomenon.' This implies not just that science requires real insight into the society with which it interacts, but also that it is forged in relationship to social forces and meanings. Social science can assist us in understanding social reactions to scientific knowledge, as well as in ensuring that science becomes aware of its own social biases and interests."

Read more at Scientific American.