In an op-ed published today in Newsweek, Kevin Bass, M.S., an M.D./Ph.D. student, 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.
An op-ed in Newsweek today 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.
“I was wrong,” wrote Kevin Bass, M.S., a 7th-year M.D./Ph.D. student at a Texas medical school. “We in the scientific community were wrong. And it cost lives.”
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.
