#SackWhitty and #SackVallance, people are saying – before they’ve even made their broadcast
Chris Whitty: the Chief Medical Officer is facing calls for his removal – before he has even had a chance to broadcast to the nation alongside Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance.
New hashtags on social media are calling for the UK’s chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser to be sacked – before they’ve even had a chance to address the public on television.
The broadcast was scheduled for 11am today (September 21) but platforms like Twitter have already been filling up with attacks on Chris Whitty and – notably – Patrick Vallance.
The attacks don’t make much sense.
In fairness to the advisers, we don’t know what their advice to the government has been. Their meetings have taken place behind closed doors and when they have faced the public it has always been under the shroud of shared responsibility – a line has been taken by Johnson government ministers and the advisers are obliged to support it.
So comments like this…
https://twitter.com/ladytereska/status/1307963780031275008
… seem premature.
Worse still is the “blame game” that some people are playing:
https://twitter.com/BrooklandBently/status/1307968741154721793
“Bent science”? We don’t know that the gentlemen concerned have been bending science in any way at all.
We do know that the politicians have been as bent as the figure “8”, trying to delay lockdown to keep the economy going, trying to shorten lockdown to prevent the economy from being harmed more than it already has been… trying to continue making money for their party donors while people die (or suffer serious health consequences).
And it’s the politicians who have been misusing emergency procurement procedures to funnel vast amounts of public money into the hands of private firms – some running companies that have been dormant for years – that happen to be run by friends of theirs; the socialism of the very rich.
So This Site tends to come down on the side of those who have been standing up for the scientists:
https://twitter.com/stemc82/status/1307966570749210626
https://twitter.com/AstroGregory/status/1307966792824950784
The scary thing is that if we don’t listen to top scientific advisers who do you want to get your guidance from?
Jim Davidson? Karen on Facebook? A bloke down the pub who told you Covid is definitely a scam as he heard it from a bloke in the pub too? #SackVallance— Philip 👌🏼 (@fredspoon) September 21, 2020
Don't #SackVallance … #SACKCUMMINGS! pic.twitter.com/pGEwThqvKI
— Steve Smith – Broke Britannia (@BrokeBritannia) September 21, 2020
https://twitter.com/PassionRadioGuy/status/1307967003043524609
So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt – for a little while, at least.
But let’s also remember…
we don't trust their lackeys either, I personally would rather listen to independent SAGE, as they are impartial.
— Darren Skippings (@DSkippings) September 20, 2020
… other scientific opinions are available.
