THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR
CMO of Rutherford Cancer Centres and Former Director of WHO Cancer Programme
SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that have won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.
IN the Sunday Express there was an article by Health Editor Lucy Johnston titled “Witch hunt is ‘silencing science’ ”.
It referred to the toxic culture that has developed over the last year in the scientific community and the abuse that has been levelled at those who believe not enough is being done to mitigate the collateral damage of lockdown.
It focuses specifically on Oxford University epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta, who has endured a horrific amount of abuse for speaking out.
I’ve spoken with Sunetra often and she is a kind, caring woman who is just doing what she thinks is right. Does that deserve such hatred from scientific colleagues? I think not.
Professor Carl Heneghan, a clinical epidemiologist at Oxford, is also mentioned and he talks about how he has been targeted. If it wasn’t for Carl, the Government would likely still be recording deaths with no time cut-off.
It was Carl’s research that got it changed from indefinite to deaths within 28 days of a positive test. A significant contribution among others.
I’ve seen my share of abuse too, from scientists and academics I once respected. I won’t name names; my policy is to avoid confrontations as many are just after attention!
What I find so depressing is that these people have got what they wanted. Many medical colleagues have seen the rough time that some of us have had and have decided not to speak out because of that. It’s no way to conduct ourselves.
This crisis affects all our lives and everybody has a right to air their views on it with no fear of the consequences.
An echo chamber that takes no account of the damage lockdown causes is a dangerous place to have a debate about future policy. Democracy and freedom to debate go hand in hand.