Swiss health minister rues science judgement during pandemic

Berset has learned to question science more critically during the pandemic. Keystone / Anthony Anex

Challenging scientific advice could have averted some mistakes that were made during the coronavirus pandemic, says Swiss interior minister Alain Berset.

In an interview with Swiss public broadcaster SRFExternal link, Berset admitted that he was too quick to implement the views of scientists during the early stages of the pandemic.

“At the beginning I did not question science enough,” he said. A case in point was the advice that face masks would be ineffective at containing infections and could even encourage the spread of Covid.

“This led to the fact that we claimed that masks could even be harmful,” said Berset whose portfolio includes health issues.

In April of last year, the government advised against the wearing of face masks, but later reversed that decision to make them mandatory on public transport and then a wider array of public places.

Multiple mea culpas

This is not the first time the Berset has admitted to mistakes in government policy surrounding coronavirus. In August he apologised for the release of wrong data by his office. In December he said that restrictions were lifted too soon after the first wave and in March said communication should have been better over the lifting of renewed restrictions.

The Covid science taskforce, that advises the government, has also come under fire both in the media and in parliament for having too much influence over elected officials. On occasion, the taskforce has openly disagreed about government policy measures.

One member of the taskforce quit in January, saying that ministers refused to deal with scientists on an equal footing.

Science’s role

Berset’s recent comments suggest that policymakers are not so keen to take scientific advice on face value as they were this time last year. But Reto Knutti, a professor of climate physics at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told SWI swissinfo.ch earlier that science still has an important role to play in defeating the pandemic.

“The problem is that science sometimes presents some unpleasant realities,” he said. “And then there is a big temptation to say the experts have no clue, or they are just seeking to raise their profiles. Although in reality this is not about trust in science but just because it doesn’t all fit into one’s own worldview.”

“Trying to silence or censor unpleasant facts is not the right way.” Individual responsibility can only work “if people can get their own informed overview and all these evaluations are on the table”.