1. New handbook urges scholars to defend evidence, not just ideas Public health science under pressure: New handbook maps risks for researchers Democratic backsliding now affects many countries, prompting an interdisciplinary team led by Lewandowsky to publish The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: The Scholars’ Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding, disseminated via the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. The handbook describes how autocratic governments use a common script to undermine institutions and restrict academic freedom, and proposes a risk-stratified framework for scholarly responses. Recommended actions range from low-risk public engagement and network building to discreet resistance and, in extreme cases, strategic retreat. A key focus is safeguarding evidence through secure, distributed data archiving and systematic documentation of interference, with particular relevance for politically sensitive fields such as public health and climate science. Comment and opinion: Public health systems and vaccines and vaccination specifically are based on public trust. This can only be based on science,...
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