Experts fear criticising ministers risks their funding
Public health experts fear they will be lose vital funding if they criticise ministers’ coronavirus strategy, academics claimed yesterday.
Professor Devi Sridhar and professor Allyson Pollock have been critical of what they claim were missed opportunities to contain Covid-19 when the outbreak began.
Many academics rely on government grants to fund research and professor Sridhar, who advises the Scottish Government on its virus strategy, said there are fears critics could be frozen out.
She posted online: “If you’re wondering why more public health people didn’t speak out publicly in early March… fear of losing grant income is key factor. Those of us who have been speaking out know it’s going to be very hard to bring in grant money now.”
Professor Pollock, who questioned the Scottish Government’s approach in an open letter, echoed the concern, saying: “You do not want to upset the government if you earn a lot of grant income and grant funding. The more research income you generate, the more unlikely you are to speak up. I think this is a major problem.
“We are meant to speak up in defence of the people and we are not seeing this happening.
“For an awful lot of grant funding it’s about what fits the government’s agenda. How the government decides its priorities and gives out funding is one of the least transparent areas of public life.”