Academics who were censored or marginalised during the recent Covid-19 epidemic are setting up their own ‘free speech’ academy to counter the cancel culture.
The Academy for Science and Freedom—based at Hillsdale College in Washington—is being created by several academics, including professors Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya. They were two of the three creators of the Great Barrington Declaration, which opposed full lockdowns in favour of a measured approach in which the most vulnerable would be protected.
Both men were vilified on social media and even by public health figures such as Anthony Fauci, America’s chief medical advisor, who spread false claims that the Declaration wanted to “let the Covid virus rip” through communities.
At the time, Prof Kulldorff said “a cartel system” had taken control of scientific debate, and scientists were either too afraid, or feared ostracization, to talk against the narrative.
Prof Bhattacharya at Stanford University said: “No scientists have a monopoly on the truth. The level of suppression of freedom of discussion has been a shock to me during the pandemic. Big tech and the government have worked together to ensure voices were suppressed. Many scientists remain silent for fear of being smeared.”
The new academy, which is designed to be an open forum for free speech without censorship, should open in the next few months.
Daily Express, May 13, 2022
