In an op-ed published recently in Newsweek, Kevin Bass, M.S., an M.D./Ph.D. student (Not exactly a “Far Right” kind of guy), blasted the elitism of the scientific community and called on it to take responsibility for the deadly consequences of misleading the public about COVID-19. Article Below.
As a medical student and researcher, I staunchly supported the efforts of the public health authorities when it came to COVID-19. I believed that the authorities responded to the largest public health crisis of our lives with compassion, diligence, and scientific expertise. I was with them when they called for lockdowns, vaccines, and boosters. I was wrong.
We in the scientific community were wrong. And it cost lives.
I can see now that the scientific community from the CDC to the WHO to the FDA and their representatives, repeatedly overstated the evidence and misled the public about its own views and policies, including on natural vs. artificial immunity, school closures and disease transmission, aerosol spread, mask mandates, and vaccine effectiveness and safety, especially among the young. All of these were scientific mistakes at the time, not in hindsight. Amazingly, some of these obfuscations continue to the present day…
Reviewed by The Defender
Like many medical students and researchers, Bass said he initially believed the information put out by public health authorities. He advocated for lockdowns, vaccines and boosters.
But now it is clear the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “repeatedly overstated the evidence and misled the public” about a wide range of topics — including but not limited to natural immunity, the need for school closures, the effectiveness of masks and vaccine safety and effectiveness, Bass said.
The biggest mistake of all, he argued, was made by a scientific community that fell in lockstep behind these institutions without concern for the needs of the broader public.
“We created policy based on our preferences, then justified it using data,” Bass wrote. “And then we portrayed those opposing our efforts as misguided, ignorant, selfish, and evil.”
This approach abandoned the principles of science and created an “us versus them” mindset in public health that fractured society and exacerbated existing health and economic disparities…
