Senior Scientists Misrepresent Science

During the pandemic, actions attributed to “Science” were referred to as if they were sacrosanct. This is not how renowned scientists defined “Science”. Richard Feynman, one of the 20th century’s greatest physicists wrote, “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. When someone says, science teaches such and such, he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn’t teach it; experience teaches it”. In addition, scientists need to, “pass on the accumulated wisdom, plus the wisdom that it might not be wisdom… to teach both to accept and reject the past with a kind of balance that takes considerable skill. Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation” (Ref.1). Rudolf Virchow, the father of modern Pathology said, “No doubt science cannot admit of compromises, and can only bring out the complete truth. Hence there must be controversy, and the strife may be, and sometimes must be, sharp. But must it even be personal? Does it help science to attack the man as well as the statement?” (Ref.2)
    Violating science’s basic premise of always questioning present thinking, are the two most senior biological scientists in the federal government, Dr, Frances Collins, Director National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2009-2021 and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director NIH Institute of Infectious Diseases 1984-2022. As the NIH is the largest funder of biological research, its influence is vast. In the Great Barrington Declaration published October 4,2020 three distinguished biologists advocated against lockdowns and for “focused protection” of those at risk of serious disease, a minority of the population, and postulated that the spread of the virus among the healthy was inevitable. They predicted that the long-term effects of lockdowns on society would be extremely deleterious and long lasting (Ref.3).  A few days later Dr. Collins emailed Dr. Fauci, “This proposal from the three fringe epidemiologists…. Seems to be getting a lot of attention and even a co-signature from Nobel Prize winner Mike Leavitt at Stanford. There needs to be a quick and devastating published take down of its premises”. Then asking, “Is it underway?” Shortly after Dr. Collins in the Washington Post stated, “This is a fringe component of epidemiology. This is not mainstream science, It’s dangerous.” Later Dr. Collins told Fox News that the authors of the Declaration were “fringe epidemiologists who really did not have the credentials” and “hundreds of thousands of people would have died if we had followed that strategy”; however, there have been about one million U.S. deaths following government policy. Dr. Fauci replied to Dr. Collin’s emails that the takedowns were under way, citing several planted articles. Also, contrary thinking about lockdowns were censored on social media due to government pressure.  One wonders what Professor Feynman would say about Dr. Fauci’s comment that, “Republicans that criticize him are really criticizing science because I represent science”. (Ref.4,5).
    In late January 2021, a group of respected virologists heavily funded by the NIH emailed Dr. Fauci that they believed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus most likely did NOT emanate from an animal source but escaped from a lab. They later reversed course, saying a natural source is more likely after receiving emails from Dr. Collins saying, “The voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate, doing great potential harm to science and international harmony”. Following up, still concerned about the lab leak theory he later emailed Dr. Fauci, “Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy.” (Ref.6).
    What drives two men, senior scientists with responsibility to direct the major biological funding agency in the world to violate the very core principles of science? We can speculate, but only they can answer that question. For the future of scientific research in the U.S., we must pursue that answer.

1. Ben Trubody, Richard Feynman’s Philosophy of Science, Philosophy Now, 2016, available at: https://philosophynow.org/issues/114/Richard_Feynmans_Philosophy_of_Science#:~:text=Feynman%20says%20we%20learn%20from%20science%20th (accessed November 8, 2022)
2. The Doc, What is Science? Quotes From Great Scientists, Famous Scientists: The Art of Genius, 2016, available at: https://www.famousscientists.org/what-is-science-quotes/ (accessed November 8, 2022)

  3.    Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, The Great Barrington Declaration, October 4, 2020, available at: https://gbdeclaration.org/ (accessed October 20, 2020)
  4.  The Editorial Board, How Fauci and Collins Shut Down Covid Debate: They Worked With the Media to Trash the Great Barrington Declaration, WSJ,        December 21, 2021, available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fauci-collins-emails-great-barrington-declaration-covid-pandemic-lockdown-11640129116 (accessed January 18, 2022)
   5.  Thomas Fazi, Toby Green, Has the Great Barrington Declaration Been Vindicated? Lockdowns Failed to Serve the Collective Good, UnHerd, January 10, 2022, available at: https://unherd.com/2022/01/has-the-great-barrington-declaration-been-vindicated/ (accessed November 15, 2022)
   6.  Nicolas Wade, A Covid Origin Conspiracy? Available at: https://www.city-journal.org/covid-origin-conspiracy (accessed November 9, 2022)