harvard university science historian and professor naomi oreskes, studies how undermining public trustscience can lead to poor decision making.sh s the author of several books including "why trust science?" and i recently spoke with her from her home in boston, massachusetts. naomi, we're at a time wn science seems so crucial ing understandd dealing with ais pandemic, but at the same time, we also haenormous amount of skepticism towards the institution of science, towards the institution of pre government. has is happened before, and how do we deal with it? >> for a historian like me who studies science and studies publicnderstanding of science and also trust and distrust in science, the current situation is unique in our lifetimes and tragically so, because as we know, back in january, therelr weredy medical and public ayalth experts saying that this virus would not n china, that it would come to the united states, and that an early response would be essential to controlling it. that advice was essentially ignored. the result is a rather late and scrambled response. and now we are see