@remixtures thank you - I found the idea of a societal health metric enlightening.
“What would an epistemically healthy society look like? … there would be enough social trust that everyone – citizen and policymakers alike – would genuinely try to understand why others disagree with them instead of dismissing other views as the result of brute irrationality or brainwashing.”
https://iai.tv/articles/misinformation-is-the-symptom-not-the-disease-daniel-walliams-auid-2690