The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an extraordinary test case for an analysis of the interrelations between policymakers and scientific experts faced with grave decisions and given the respective levels of trust they enjoy. The article provides a comparative analysis between three countries—Germany, the USA and South Africa (SA)—of the interrelation between the public’s perceptions of the threat posed by the pandemic, the trust in governments and in scientific experts formally organized to advise governments, and the acceptance of governments’ decisions to mitigate the pandemic. These scientific experts enjoyed a high degree of acceptance even when admitting uncertainty and the need for further research. Support for politicians also remained high in spite of the severity of the measures implemented and their increasingly evident departure from their experts’ advice. However, trust in politicians deteriorated as the pandemic progressed, most dramatically in the USA, less so in SA and Germany, due to the politicization of the pandemic. The analysis is limited to events during 2020.

中文翻译：

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民主和专家合法性：COVID-19 大流行期间的科学、政治和公众

COVID-19 大流行为分析面临重大决策的决策者和科学专家之间的相互关系提供了一个非凡的测试案例，并考虑到他们各自享有的信任程度。本文对德国、美国和南非 (SA) 三个国家之间的比较分析，分析了公众对大流行病威胁的看法、对政府的信任以及对正式组织起来为政府提供建议的科学专家之间的相互关系，以及接受各国政府减轻大流行病的决定。即使承认不确定性和需要进一步研究，这些科学专家也享有高度的接受度。尽管实施的措施很严厉，而且他们越来越明显地背离专家的建议，但对政客的支持也仍然很高。然而，随着大流行的发展，人们对政客的信任度下降，尤其是在美国，由于大流行的政治化，在南非和德国的信任度较低。分析仅限于 2020 年期间的事件。