The responses of the Downing Street media machine to questions about the health of the British prime minister in recent days have been largely at one with its pandemic communication campaign. Shortages of personal protective equipment or tests for health staff prompt official reassurances that things are not really that bad, followed inevitably by admissions that things are, well, a bit worse, but no cause for concern.
The scepticism about what the public was being told about Boris Johnson’s deteriorating condition and admission to ICU may well have been unjustified – his staff were apparently genuinely shocked by his sudden deterioration after 10 days of mild symptoms – but should make Downing Street look hard again at the need for more transparency, less spin, less self-promotion, less bulldog spirit exhortation.
Transparent communication and sober, authoritative science-based briefings are what is essential to get community buy-in to the measures that need to be taken. No hiding of unpleasant realities, no massaging of statistics, no promotion of magic cures, or buck-passing. Without transparency in deliberation and decision-making, rumour and conspiracy theories proliferate just as surely as the virus, infecting communities with misinformation and breeding mistrust.
Indeed, politicians could take lessons in transparency – above all, in sharing – from the impressive work of scientists struggling to find a cure for the virus. “While political leaders have locked their borders,” the New York Times reports, “scientists have been shattering theirs, creating a global collaboration unlike any in history.” Never before, researchers say, have so many experts in so many countries focused simultaneously on a single topic and with such urgency. Much other research has ground to a halt.
The pandemic is sweeping away the secrecy that has always, for commercial or academic prestige reasons, pervaded medical research. Scientists are rushing to share their results freely online. More than 200 clinical trials have been launched, bringing together hospitals and labs around the world.
And although Chinese officials initially covered up the scale of the pandemic, and are alleged to be still doing so, Chinese scientists have in many ways led the world’s coronavirus research. A Chinese laboratory made public the initial viral genome in January, a disclosure that formed the basis for coronavirus tests worldwide.
While transparency in research will undoubtedly undermine private interests, notably the ability of drug companies to generate super-profits, and transparency in public life may erode secret, perhaps more efficient, decision-making and privacy, these are times when we have to rebalance our priorities.