We do need scientists, doctors and others to be able to speak out and talk about the options, the benefits and the risks of all routes forward. This is an unprecedented situation which has taken unexpected turns and has an unpredictable future. The vaccinations were developed in record time (regardless of what people say to counteract that fact) and the reality is that the vaccines wane quickly. We need to carry on looking at the ongoing effectiveness of the vaccine, the ongoing risks posed by the virus and we need to continue to explore all options that are available to us, whether that be improvements in testing, improvements in treatment, improvements in vaccines... this virus has not stood still, neither can we.
It is not easy to speak out or pose questions these days when your face and words are spread all over the media, when opinions from closed government meetings are leaked to the press, when public opinion is carefully managed and the mob culture on twitter prevents the true and free expression of opinions. When we teach our children critical thinking at school, we teach them to question sources, to explore around the subject, to investigate alternatives and present counter arguments. We cannot allow these important skills to be silenced because we believe the answer to be already here.
We do not have the answer to Coronavirus. The further we progress through this pandemic, the more it becomes obvious that mass vaccination of the entire global population every 10 weeks, is not the answer, neither from a clinical perspective, an efficient use of resources nor an environmental perspective.
What might work... well, we might find a drug that prevents the serious lung related effects of coronavirus that can be taken once you start to show symptoms, that would only need to be given to positive cases, in the UK that would be 14M cases so far. Testing might become more efficient, we might also be able to assess who is more likely to suffer severe effects and to focus our efforts on those.
As with many other topics, we hear the loudest voices, when other voices speak up and are silenced, we have no idea how large that body of opinion is, unless we give it space to be heard. I stand by the freedom of speech.