Maja Fjaestad was state secretary for health in Sweden during the Covid 19 pandemic. Recently she published the book (with Emma Lennartsson) “Mitt i krisen” (In the Midst of the Crisis) (Volante, 2024), collecting lessons learned from the Swedish Covid response. This seminar is intended to briefly present the main findings of the book, but also to discuss aspects of science-to-policy during crises in general and health crises in particular. There is broad and general support for the idea that politics should be based on science and evidence, and that politicians should turn to science for advice. In practice, it is often more complicated. Putting trust in experts may never be used as a way to avoid political responsibility. Following science is not the same as letting scientists decide, and there is thus no way for politicians to escape the rightful accountability they have for their decisions. The political task is to evaluate the various social consequences scientific advice may have, as well as to evaluate how desirable or acceptable these consequences are from a democratic perspective. The matter of balancing democratic responsibility with scientific experts’ visibility will most likely be an issue in every major crisis. No matter the type of crisis, knowledge will always be required, and in a crisis scientific knowledge is often uncertain: It changes and takes new paths. Policymakers must be able to listen closely to the science and understand the scientific method—without ever falling for the temptation to delegate their democratic responsibly to someone else.
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