Cochrane Collaboration co-founder Peter Gøtzsche has written an article that reads as an open letter to scientists the world over.

“Looking back, it seems appropriate to abbreviate the covid-19 pandemic as the covid-19 panic, or to call it the pandemic of censorship and poor science,” he writes.

Science and free speech were among the earliest victims of covid-19. Free debate became a thing of the past. Knowledgeable scientists who spoke out were harassed, censored and publicly humiliated. Those who dared write critically about not just the vaccines but anything medically related were smeared with the labels “anti-vaxx” or “anti-science.”

What we have seen so far are pathetic defences of grossly failed policies. Official inquiries about what happened during the pandemic are really about those who implemented covid measures saving face.

“All knowledgeable people need to speak up now. Why? Because those who hold power don’t seem to have learned anything from their mistakes and will likely make the same mistakes the next time a pandemic haunts the globe … We must fight with everything we have against governments that behave in a dictatorial manner, against the evidence and using substandard experts,” Gøtzsche writes.