Bias in ‘the science’ on coronavirus? Britain has been here before | Sonia Sodha
Lessons about scientific transparency from the BSE scandal have been forgotten as the government grapples this crisis
It became the defining moment of the BSE crisis. In an attempt to persuade the public that it was perfectly safe to eat beef, the then agriculture minister, John Gummer, fed his four-year-old daughter a burger on camera in 1990. Six years later, the government admitted there was a link between eating infected beef and the brain disease vCJD, though thankfully the numbers affected were relatively small. Nevertheless, the scandal eroded public trust in government public health messaging, with knock-on effects on parents' perception of government advice during the MMR scandal, a few years later.
The Gummer moment should serve as a warning to politicians about what happens if they seek to patronise the public with assurances that are not backed up by science. Yet there are already several candidates for the coronavirus equivalent. Will it be Boris Johnson boasting of shaking hands with everybody" on 3 March? His claim on 12 March that banning large events would have little effect? Or his assurances that the government will avoid another national lockdown?
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