Richard Horton: ‘It’s the biggest science policy failure in a generation’ | Financial Times

The editor-in-chief of The Lancet... I do believe lives could have been saved had we acted earlier"... demanded transparency on the opaque epidemiological models ... included ... “herd immunity”... The idea you can strip out politics from medicine or health is historically ignorant. The medical establishment should be much more politicised... attacking issues like health inequalities and poor access to care...

never been forgiven for publishing a 1998 paper ... unfounded doubts about the safety ... MMR) childhood vaccine... wasn’t fully retracted until 2010... "I can’t simply retract papers I don’t like. There has to be due process [via the GMC tribunal]"...

horrifying to see the lack of concern by some NHS management...the government either ignored or did not act on information in a timely manner... first paper ... on January 24... was seemingly passed over in Whitehall... the biggest science policy failure in a generation...

Western countries... saw the threat through the lens of influenza. China and Hong Kong feared a rerun of Sars... cognitive bias... cost us dearly.