The debate between science and democracy can become heated. Science, on one hand, usually proceed with a calm and logical manner. When science is used solely for making decisions, all the other “unnecessary” elements are excluded from the decision-making process, including sentimental feelings, religions, and cultures. However, this exclusion can cause a lot of troubles since humans are “made” with both the logical aspects and the emotional aspects. Hence, when a ruler makes decision, he will also need to take into account the “irrational” part of human mind. Democracy, on the other hand, is defined as “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representative”. This basically means that when the country is governed in a democratic structure, the ruler listens to his people and make decisions based on people’s feelings. Here comes the question: if the rule maker wants to make decision that better fits the country, it has to refer to the science of politics, economy, medicine and etc., but science can sometimes be indifferent, which can be against the feelings of the citizens. In this sense, science and democracy can be opposite to each other under certain circumstances. How to balance the conflict between them can be a real challenge for the decision maker.

The idea of anti-vaccine is prevalent in the US. According to the statistics, the non-medical vaccine exemption rate has increase in the past few years (Belluz).

This is not only due to the fact that particular culture or religion has a negative attitude toward vaccination, but also when Trump was in power, he suggested that vaccine hurts children and will cause autism, which strengthen the belief that vaccine is useless among his followers (Belluz). However, without vaccination, the outbreak of certain diseases would be possible. For example, in 2019, there was an outbreak of measles, which is a vaccine-preventable disease. This outbreak was primarily a result from three smaller outbreaks-one in Washington and two in New York(CDC Media Statement: Measles cases in the U.S. are highest since measles was eliminated in 2000). Since measles was a disease eliminated back in 2000 by the US, and we have specific vaccines to prevent it, the only reason why there was an outbreak in 2019 is due to the non-medical vaccination refusal of some people. Here, we can see a typical conflict between science and democracy. In order to be democratic, we have to let the people make their own choices. But, in order to rule the country successfully and scientifically, the ruler has to protect the people from diseases, which one of the ways is to vaccinate them.

Another example of the struggle is the quarantine procedure during the COVID-19. Some countries decided to close-up their cities and restricted their citizens from going out of their homes. Even though this sounds inhumane, this kind of regulations were mainly for protecting the country from having more infections. Countries that adopted this regulation includes Italy and China. By looking at the diagram below, you can see the change in new cases has dropped down significantly when the lockdown regulation began. The rise in new cases for Italy recently has a lot to do with its looser regulation comparing to that during April.

On the other hand, for countries like the US who never adopted any compulsory quarantine procedure nationwide, the statistics doesn’t look very promising:

The conflict here arises again. If the country wants to solve the epidemic issue effectively, it has to track each infected’s close contacts and find the source of the infection; at the same time, locking down the community or even cities when necessary. However, by doing this, these resolutions will not only affect people’s privacy, but also it will result in people losing salaries since a lot of them doesn’t have the option of working remotely. In this case, by considering people’s feeling and the value of the US, the democratic decision would be imposing minimal quarantine procedure which will not affect people’s daily life, but this will not be effective toward the virus. If the scientific method is considered, strong quarantine is needed which will interfere with people’s life.

The examples mentioned above are two cases relevant to today’s social and political contexts. Even though the two cases I talked about are how science and democracy can be against each other, there are plenty of examples out their which science and democracy go along with each other very well. In order for this to happen, people have to understand the science behind the ruler’s decision or simply give the ruler enough trust. As the social and cultural situation of each country are very complex, it might take more effort for science and democracy to coexist completely.

Work Cited Page

Belluz, Julia. The Anti-Vaccine Movement’s Influence May Be Waning. 20 Nov. 2017, www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/11/20/16667116/rate-parents-opting-out-vaccines-kids-plateaued-america.

“CDC Media Statement: Measles Cases in the U.S. Are Highest since Measles Was Eliminated in 2000.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 Apr. 2019, www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/s0424-highest-measles-cases-since-elimination.html.