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Public confidence in the work of scientists and health experts has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, amid a rise in misinformation about the virus, according to a survey.
The opinion poll by the Open Knowledge Foundation, an open data campaign group, found that 64% of voters were now more likely to listen to expert advice from scientists and researchers, and only 5% said it was less likely. let them do it.
Survation’s survey also found that 51% of the population had seen false news about the coronavirus, including discredited claims that Covid-19 was linked to 5G mobile phone masts, on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. .
Catherine Stihler, executive director of the foundation, said the decision to commission the survey was prompted by a study by Ofcom, the transmission watchdog, which discovered last month that more than half of Britons had seen misinformation. about the virus.
He said they wanted to see if that misinformation had damaged public confidence in open data and science, but found that confidence in experts had increased. Survation found that 31% were much more likely to listen to experts, and 33% slightly more likely.
The majority of voters, 59%, also trusted the government to make the right decisions about using confidential data to decide when to lift the blockade and change the rules of social distancing. However, 35% of voters said they did not trust the government, and only 6% were unsure.
The public also wanted much greater access to scientific data and did not like restrictions on their right to obtain information. Survation found that 67% of voters believe that all the results of the search for a Covid-19 vaccine should be available for free.
Furthermore, 97% of the 1,006 voters surveyed said that the government and health agencies should disclose non-confidential data used by ministers and the NHS to inform their policies, and 95% said the data should always be openly available, At first.
Stilher, said a former Labor MEP, said it was essential that ministers and health agencies be transparent during the crisis, given its impact on people’s lives.
“Trust is really important in all of this,” he said. “If we want to trust what we are doing and the action we are taking, we must trust the science behind it and be able to judge it.”
The UK government’s decision to use a contact tracking application with a centralized data collection process, putting the data on large servers, was at risk of undermining that trust, he said. Other countries, such as Finland, Ireland, Estonia, and Switzerland, used contact tracking apps that used decentralized data that stayed on a user’s phone.
“Openness is critical to trust, and trust is critical to getting us out of this,” he said.
The foundation asked voters if they believed that governments should use emergency legislation to suspend or change the public’s right to information. The Scottish government has approved controversial powers that allow public bodies up to 60 business days to respond to requests for freedom of information.
Survation found that 52% of voters opposed restricting the right to know, while 29% supported it and 18% were unsure.
The finding that 51% had seen false information about the virus on social media reflects the findings of Ofcom Their weekly surveys found that 44% to 50% had seen erroneous information in the previous week, most frequently linking the coronavirus to 5G masts. Ofcom found that 3% to 7% of people had shared it with others that week.
