Following the Science: Political Epistemology and the COVID- 19 Epidemic in the UK

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Following the science. This refrain was frequently invoked byGovernment ministers in the UK in 2020 in order to construe aseparation between policy interventions and politics during theCOVID-19 epidemic. But what does it mean to follow thescience? This research project will consider both 'the science',in terms of factors that shape the production of scientificknowledge and policy recommendations, as well as the waysin which governments 'follow' this; in other words, how arethese scientific findings translated into policy? Through thisinvestigation it will consider the relationship between scienceand government policy by assessing the ways in which social,political and economic factors influence the science that isproduced in a definite context, the internal logic of variousmethods and disciplines that predominate contemporaryscience in a policy setting, and the ways in which governmentsuse those recommendations to formulate policy responses.Through a combination of critical realism and politicalepistemology, and incorporating insights from both sociologyand philosophy of science, it will seek to identify the causalprocesses that shaped the response to COVID-19 in the UKand use this case study to draw broader conclusions about theinteraction between sociological and philosophical factors andscientific knowledge in a public policy context.