Communicating uncertainty in science : A pandemic of uncertainty?

The useful part

Welcome to the first post in our new GeoLog series on communicating uncertainty! Solmaz Mohadjer, this series explores how reframing uncertainty as a strength can enhance science communication. In this opening piece, Berenice Schramm and Benni Suchalla examine one of the biggest communication challenges of our time: the COVID-19 pandemic.

How it works

• By analyzing vaccine messaging, risk infographics, and global trust metrics, they demonstrate why showing science as an evolving process rather than a set of fixed facts is important for building public trust.
• What exactly does the pandemic have to do with uncertainty, and how can trust be built through better science communication?
• So-called 'alternative facts' often fall on fertile ground, particularly amongst populist circles.
• During the Covid-19 pandemic in particular, this loss of trust was evident, for example, in the 'Querdenken' movement, which, amongst others, deliberately questioned protective measures and the...
• We all remember the AstraZeneca debacle, involving cases of cerebral venous thrombosis in young people despite STIKO's prior recommendation.

What to take from it

The STIKO initially recommended the use of the vaccine for a cohort that was broad in terms of age. Butwhen severe cases of cerebral venous thrombosis were emerging in young people approximately 4–16 days after administration that the recommendation was revised by the experts to apply to people over the age of 60. At the same time, the EMA maintained its recommendation on the use of the vaccine, which led to visible disharmony among European institutions and provocated the impression of arbitrariness [1].

Details worth keeping

Trust in science appears to be in crisis these days. Here, too, one can speak of a lack of transparency, which led...