The White House’s clampdown on the term “evidence-based” is but one example of the anti-science movement. Unstopped, it will prevent advances in health

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IS LIFE today better than it was 50 years ago? It depends on who you ask. Nearly nine out of 10 Vietnamese people think so – but only one in 10 Venezuelans. About two-thirds of Germans and Swedes say yes, but fewer than half of Brits and only a third of Americans agree. Worldwide, an unhealthy majority – 57 per cent – think quality of life has deteriorated or stagnated.

These results come from a survey of 43,000 people in 38 countries, published this month by the Pew Research Center in Washington DC.

The gloom is perhaps surprising, given how much life has been transformed by science, technology and medicine since 1967. As the report notes, 50 years ago, many countries had yet to experience the gains in health and life expectancy brought about by vaccinations, green revolutions and so on. Technology has dramatically boosted living standards too.


Why don’t people seem to notice, or care? In the words of Bill Clinton, it’s the economy, stupid. The single biggest influence that Pew identified was respondents’ sense of their own nation’s economic performance. In South Korea, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Turkey, which have enjoyed big economic gains, solid majorities say that life is better.

But when life is a struggle, long and gradual improvements in living standards are easy to forget. The result is that one of the greatest uplifts in well-being in human history seems to be widely taken for granted.

This is also a warning about the future. Recently, we have seen signs that the gains from science and technology are slowing or even reversing. Challenges like climate change and antibiotic resistance will make it harder to make further improvements. On top of that, our ability to address these issues is threatened by a tsunami of anti-scientism, which has moved from denying scientific facts to crushing our ability to determine them at all.

“After the initial vigour of the March for Science last April, attempts to defend reason have fizzled out”

The epicentre is, of course, Donald Trump’s White House. Its latest insult is apparently to ban officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using the terms “evidence-based” and “science-based”. But it doesn’t end there. Turkey’s authoritarian regime continues to suppress free exchange of ideas. India’s government is promoting research inspired by Hindu mythology – the health-giving properties of cow dung and urine, for example.

Science and scientists need to get better at reminding the world that they are a force for good – including that all-important prosperity.

After the initial vigour of the March for Science last April, attempts to defend science have fizzled out or returned to angry tweeting or academic letter-writing. Such politesse is not enough in the face of determined and unscrupulous opposition.

Science has its weaknesses. Not everyone will be or should be a cheerleader for it. But as we go into the new year, we could all begin by emphasising what science has done and can do for us. If we forget, and allow it to seem irrelevant or threatening, the next half-century really may be no better than the last.

This article appeared in print under the headline “A world divided”