Independent scientific advice to policy makers. Before, during and after the COVID-19 crisis

The challenge for policy makers consists in mastering different processes in parallel: a) Having the needed knowledge at hand and understanding its relevance for the decision making. b) Mastering the political processes needed to build acceptance for the implementation of the respective decision. c) Proving convincing leadership in an environment of conflicting values and distrust. Because, …no matter what the evidence base is, the policies that are selected need to be understood and adopted by citizens, which means that those providing the evidence need to be trusted… (OECD, 2020).