From the start of the pandemic, writers at National Review and elsewhere have argued that governors and presidents cannot set policy just by “following the science.” Science has no legitimate way of assessing the public’s tolerance for certain measures and intrusions. Nor does it have the ability to weigh competing and contrary claims of political and economic liberty against public-health priorities.
It’s a problem we’ve seen over and over again. Governor Gavin Newsom will try to ward off criticism as illegitimate or troglodyte in nature, because he is “following the science.” Or some governments will see fit to foreswear responsibility for their own political decisions by inappropriately delegating governance to the public-health bodies that should merely inform them. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci has conflated policy with the findings of science, saying that criticism of him and his contradictory statements is really just criticism of science itself.
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