ATHENS – President Donald Trump is never far from a public spat with his government’s top expert on the pandemic, Dr.
Anthony Fauci, the most recent flare-up occurring this week over the pace of reopening schools. Among U.S. allies, however, many leaders are happy to step away from the spotlight to leverage experts’ ability to counter misleading information and appeal across political boundaries to gain public compliance for health restrictions. “The particular features of a pandemic give new dimensions to questions of trust," said Terry Flew, a professor of communication at Queensland University of Technology. "Experts who understand the subject and politicians prepared to listen to them, become vitally important.