Ciencia y política del coronavirus

Abstract

Based on demographic data regarding the relevance of political ideology in reluctance against COVID vaccination, this contribution analyzes the phenomenon of political instrumentalization of scientific information in the fight against the pandemic. In the first place, a negative causal influence is defended, on the vaccination campaign, by the use of the lack of scientific consensus as a political weapon. Second, the scope and nature of “coronavirus science” as a regulatory science is examined, distinguishing different types of external values with different degrees of justification in the closure of interpretive flexibility. It is then concluded, in the third place, the lack of foundation for a discretionary political use of the scientific information generated by the science of the coronavirus. Subsequently, fourthly, the philosophical presuppositions of the effective political use made of scientific information are identified, namely, the erroneous presupposition of an academic science that speaks with one voice. On this basis, it is finally argued in favor of the explicit recognition of the regulatory nature of the science of the coronavirus, with its strengths and limitations, as a basis for a more responsible political use of scientific information and the opening of its evaluative aspects to public debate and moral deliberation.