Historicizing Trust in Medicine
Commentator: Alfred Freeborn
Moderator: Lara Keuck
The End of Medical Expertise?
Have online threats and harassment of medical personnel throughout the COVID pandemic as well as public refusal to abide by public health measures signalled the death of medical expertise? While these concerning events are despairingly described as a war on science, the end of expertise, and “post-truth,” a social epistemology re-reading of events as changing parameters of trust in public health and health care institutions provides a more nuanced understanding of the problem and what to do about it.
Biography
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Maya GoldenbergMaya Goldenberg is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Guelph (Canada). She studies philosophy of science and medicine, especially evidence and healthcare decision-making, science and values, and science in relation to the public. She is author of Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021).
TRUSTING SCIENCE
This event is part of the MPIWG's Institute's Colloquium 2021–22 series "Trusting Science," which seeks to explore this topic from interdisciplinary, transnational, and longue durée perspectives. Learn more about the series here.