The worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been enormous. It has affected the justification of the contributions from academia, and resulted in rapid spreading of misinformation and conspiracy theories. The use of the social media has during the pandemic intermixed the space between the private and the public domain, and has interfered with an adequate functioning public sphere. In this article I will sketch some remarkable aspects of the pandemic impact on the sciences and on society at large. Then, I will argue that conceptualisations of 'worldview' and 'paradigm' could be of use to shed light on clashes between science and society and between science and politics. In the discussion section, I will deal with the impact of the new social media on the public sphere, present what a pedagogy of science perspective might contribute in dealing with such clashes, and how theories and practices of inter-worldview education might be interpreted as stimulating examples for dealing with other differing worldviews and paradigms and how to practice translation work, in order to learn to live democratically together with consensus and dissensus. I finish with a short epilogue.