There is a widespread perception that there has been huge increase of medical knowledge and understanding in recent decades, supported by research funds of billions of dollars. This and the fact that there are open systems of research and learning with international linkages – so that any possibility of a mistake can be corrected soon – has boosted public confidence that any medical crisis that emerges will soon get a proper and adequate response resulting in the availability of effective treatments.
However, recently this public confidence received a serious setback in several countries as the effectiveness of several treatments and responses to Covid-19 persisted for quite a long time and allegations of non-rational treatment and diagnosis were also made frequently. In any widely debated issue like the Covid crisis, it is only to be expected that there will be allegations and criticisms, but when even worldreputed and normally sedate medical journals are forced to give expression to widely felt anguish, then even skeptics must sit up and take notice. It is in this context that an editorial of the prestigious BMJ ( British Medical Journal) attracted a lot of attention some time back.
Moreover, it was not just what was written in the editorial but the equally anguished response of several senior doctors and scientists which attracted attention to the debate . This editorial published on 13 November 2020 titled ‘Covid-19 – politicisation, ‘corruption’, and suppression’ ( written by executive editor Kamran Abbasi) has been widely discussed as a strong indictment of the response to Covid in Britain and elsewhere and has attracted much comment. This editorial says, “When good science is suppressed by the medicalpolitical complex, people die.”
It goes on to say, “Politicians and governments are suppressing science. Science is being suppressed for political and financial gains. Covid-19 has unleashed state corruption on a grand scale, and it is harmful to public health. Politicians and industry are responsible for this opportunistic embezzlement. So too are scientists and health experts. The pandemic has revealed how the medical-political complex can be manipulated in an emergency – at a time when it is even more important to safeguard science.” The editorial specifically referred to research published the previous week in the same journal which found that the UK government procured an antibody test that fell far short of performance claims made by manufacturers.
Researchers from Public Health England and collaborating institutions, the editorial points out, sensibly pushed to publish their study findings before the government committed to buying a million of these tests but were blocked by the health department and the Prime Minister’s Office. The UK’s pandemic response, the editorial regrets, relies too heavily on scientists and other government appointees with worrying competing interests, including shareholdings in companies that manufacture Covid19 diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines. Government appointees are able to ignore or cherry pick science – another form of misuse – and indulge in anti-competitive practices that favour their own products and those of friends and associates.
The editorial asserts, “Suppressing science, whether by delaying publication, cherry picking favorable research, or gagging scientists is a danger to public health, causing death by exposing people to unsafe or ineffective interventions and preventing them from benefiting from better ones. When entangled with commercial decisions it is also maladministration of taxpayers’ money. The medical political complex tends towards suppression of science to aggrandize and enrich those in power.” Finally, the editorial asserted that “when good science is suppressed, people die.” This editorial was followed by responses from eminent medical experts who appreciated the courage of the writer and merits of the argument and congratulated BMJ for saying what needed to be said but had not been said for a long time in clear terms.
Dr. Eshani M. King of Evidence Based Research in Immunology and Health pointed out in a detailed response titled ‘Covid-19 – Science, Conflict and the Elephant in the Room’: “Public fear is being driven by inflation of Covid cases caused by inappropriate use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test. This test is hypersensitive and highly susceptible to contamination, particularly when not processed with utmost rigour by properly trained staff. Excess total deaths have been driven by lack of treatment due to hospital closure/lockdowns and have occurred mostly at home.
Hijacking of science by vested interests has resulted in immeasurable harm to society. Lockdowns meant to save lives but pushed by narratives that have little basis in science, have themselves caused loss of life, livelihood, dignity and humanity.” Dr. Theodore F. Schrecker, Prof. of Global Health Policy, Newcastle University, spoke of the rot at the core of the UK government response to the pandemic. The result of the lack of accountability mechanism is that people die not only from Covid-19 but also from other conditions, as diagnosis and treatment have been disrupted by shambolic responses to the pandemic.
In another response, a retired senior doctor, Andrew N. Bamji lamented, “Any counter-narrative from an informed individual or an academic department, has been seriously ignored. Dissenters have been quite efficiently no-platformed.” If this is the state of affairs in Britain, one can well imagine how serious the situation must be in countries with lesser medical regulation and lower levels of medical knowledge and transparency. In India, one disturbing aspect relates to the many media stories that have already appeared regarding black-marketing of medicines used in the treatment of Covid-19 so that patients or their family members have to pay a very high price.
This would indicate that many people of modest means got indebted in the course of paying for the medicines they needed. However, several criticisms have gone beyond this, and when these are voiced by persons with sound medical background or even by nationally and internationally renowned experts then it is very worrying. In a recent letter to the 74th World Health Assembly, 197 individuals and organizations who have been involved at various levels with health issues, have said that several medicines and treatments which were widely used in India in the treatment of Covid-19 in India were in violation of international scientific protocols and guidelines of the WHO and the Indian Council of Medical Research and this proved very costly for large numbers of patients.
Another letter signed in May by 18 senior doctors and scientists opposed the continued use of CPT (Convalescent Plasma Therapy ) despite the internationally accepted evidence against this. Following this letter, the government finally dropped this. Another open letter by a retired senior doctor, Major General Dr. V.K. Sinha, VSM, has gone one step ahead in pointing out the time-lines to establish that long after the non-rationality and harm of certain drugs and medicines had been clearly established these continued to be not just used but even recommended at high levels. In this context this letter even indicates the possibility of a scam.
This is just a sampling of the concerns voiced by senior and reputed persons regarding the response to Covid-19 in many countries. In fact, if the trajectory of this response is followed carefully then we have been hearing such critical views from the outset of the crisis. Surely all this criticism cannot be brushed aside. In fact, it will help the cause of proper response and treatment if such critical views when expressed by normally credible sources get due consideration.
(The writer is a journalist and author. His recent books Protecting Earth for Children and Planet in Peril)