Govt’s Covid scientists receive suspicious packages for making ‘bad decisions’
A number of suspicious packages were sent to scientists who advised the Government during the coronavirus pandemic by people who feel they are “making bad decisions”, one expert revealed today.
Professor Calum Semple, who sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said he had been on the receiving end of a “particularly nasty” experience.
The professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool has regularly appeared on television and radio in the past year to be quizzed on the situation with coronavirus in the UK, as have other experts.
He said scientists like himself and others had “attracted adverse attention” during that time.
Webinar earlier today
During a webinar hosted by the Royal Society of Medicine today, he was asked about the issue.
Professor Roger Kirby, president of the society and host of the session, asked: “You’ve been targeted by the anti-vax group, haven’t you?
“Didn’t somebody post something along the lines that ‘Calum kills wildlife for fun…?’”
Prof Semple said that was correct and added: “We are fortunate that the police are open to hearing from us and there’s good liaison support for us when these threats are made. That was one particularly nasty event.
“There have been others since then and suspicious packages sent to Sage members and myself.
“This comes from both extremes – people that feel that we’re making bad decisions and they don’t appreciate that Sage is not a decision-making body.”
Semple stressed that scientists advising Government are there to answer “exam questions from ministers or from chief scientific officers or chief medical officers”, and to give their best estimates.
He said: “I’ve never been at a Sage meeting where we’ve sat around drinking coffee saying ‘wouldn’t it be a jolly good idea if we closed the pubs?’
“That conversation has never and will never happen.
“It’s about what is the likely contribution of construction versus schools versus large matches, and that’s where you can then present a menu of likely impacts, and then it’s for policymakers to make the decisions, but we’re not a talking shop or we’re not a suggestion box or a brains trust, it’s very much about dealing with inadequate information and giving best opinion.”
Chris Whitty assault
In July, a former estate agent was given a suspended sentence when he admitted a charge of assault by beating after England’s chief medical officer was put in a headlock in a central London park.
A court heard that Professor Chris Whitty was “humiliated” by the incident in St James’s Park, which occurred when he declined to take a photo with Lewis Hughes.
Footage, lasting about 20 seconds, was widely shared on social media.
The 24-year-old, of Romford, Essex, was sacked from his job following the incident on June 27, and described by a judge as having engaged in “yobbish behaviour”.
Prof Whitty had been forced to endure public harassment on previous occasions, having been confronted in a street in Oxford by a man accusing him of lying to the public about coronavirus and, on another occasion, accosted outside Westminster.
Both occurrences were filmed on mobile phones.
Prof Whitty brushed off the Westminster incident, addressing it at a Downing Street press conference shortly afterwards.
He told viewers: “In terms of being harangued … the odd young lad showing off occasionally happens.
“I didn’t think anything of it, frankly. I was very surprised it was picked up by the media at all, as anything of any importance.”
He added that he was sure the person involved would “become a model citizen in due course”, hoping they could be more like much-admired NHS charity fundraiser, the late Captain Sir Tom Moore.