The evidence is clear, and COVID-19 has crystallised it, the world needs to use evidence better.
Amid roaring misinformation, disinformation and the burden of the pandemic, the basis for which true and reliable research evidence is produced and shared has been found wanting. A global commission has now issued four recommendations to address the world's unparalleled demand for evidence and improve decision making.
"It's a wake-up call for decision makers in governments and international organisations and regular citizens in their own lives, that we can all make better use of evidence. The pandemic taught us that the failure to use evidence properly, costs lives," the Federal Labor Member for Fenner Andrew Leigh told The Canberra Times.
Spurred on by the rapidly-evolving challenges of COVID, Dr Leigh has been one of 25 commissioners in an initiative called the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges, headquartered out of McMaster University in Canada. Other commissioners include clinical researchers and public servants.
While it may seem an easy call to seek and cite evidence, especially when making tough decisions, it is very often not that simple.
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Dr Leigh says instead of a full body of evidence, often single, exciting, unexpected and possibly not peer-reviewed studies get attention.
"Sometimes, a single study can be misleading, particularly if it's not peer reviewed," the politician and author said.
"One of the things we learned in COVID, for example, is unproven cures such as hydroxychloroquine appeared to be effective in small scale, low quality studies. But when it was subjected to larger scale, high quality studies, it turned out not to work."
"So decision makers need to be using the very, very best evidence in working out which approach we need to tackle over COVID."
Unsurprisingly, evidence is poorer in poor nations. Data and ideas are needed in and from these countries to combat big challenges such as illiteracy, hunger, disease and conflict, but the evidence is largely coming from elsewhere.
"We were really shocked when we looked at the evidence around sustainable development goals, [which] first and foremost are about raising living standards in poor countries. And yet most of the evidence is from rich countries," Dr Leigh said.
The global commission is keen for one-stop-shops for evidence, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Cochrane Collaboration on medical interventions, and the Campbell Collaboration on social interventions.
The commission has four recommendations, including that all governments review how they use evidence, including how they evaluate their programs. It has also recommended the UN, G20 and other international bodies issue a formal resolution committing to better use of evidence and that the World Bank issues a World Development Report dedicated to evidence. As well, it has recommended that evidence by citizens is used better by decision makers to help combat misinformation and help everyday decisions.
Ultimately, it is about decision makers being armed with the best information, drawn together in what's called evidence synthesis.
"Evidence is the cornerstone of good decision making, whether it's decision making in our own lives, by governments or by international organisations. Building a better feedback loop will help create a better world," Dr Leigh said.
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