Science has lost its way, and it’s been a story decades in the making. The COVID-19 pandemic brought this detour into sharp focus, accelerating the credibility gap and contributing to a rising loss of public trust in science. 

A Pew Research poll from 2023 found trust in scientists declined by 14-percentage points during the pandemic. The political divide has become even more pronounced as well. A 2021 Gallup poll found 86% of Democrats reported having a high trust in science compared to only 37% of Republicans. What’s more, distrust of science is closely correlated to distrust of other institutions.  

Findings from the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute concluded that COVID-19 vaccination status correlates to trust in government, the news media, the academy and religious and scientific organizations. 

The problems at the core of science are complicated and multi-faceted. Experts interviewed by Philanthropy Roundtable identified several top reasons: 

• The pressure to conform to conventional wisdom has never been higher. 
• Career bureaucrats now run the government and outlast presidential administrations. 
• Research funding is closely tied to the National Institute of Health (NIH), leading scientists to choose research topics carefully to avoid conflicting with the NIH. 
• Peer-review journals have become “pay-to-play” publications where unbiased science is crowded out. 

“At the end of the day, science should not have an ebb and flow. We may learn new things, but it should not be ignored just based on politics,” said Jacob Traverse, president and CEO of the Center for Truth in Science. “If that’s the truth of the science, and the evidence supports it, the decisions should reflect that. Often, we see that’s not the case.”