Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific research that was previously conducted and published under the public's radar has now become chum for politically partisan feeding frenzies. To succeed in this new era of ideological distortion and bad faith, scientists will have to go on the offensive.
OXFORD – On July 31, 2020, my college at the University of Oxford hosted a Zoom seminar featuring talks by several internationally renowned scientists. The session was intended primarily for internal faculty, but, owing to the pandemic-inspired practice of disseminating scientific findings as widely as possible, other researchers and interested members of the public had also been invited. When my turn came to speak, I opened my PowerPoint and was immediately assailed with abusive messages in the chat window. To quote one verbatim: “FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING SHEEP NEW WORLD ORDER PIECE OF SHIT.”
OXFORD – On July 31, 2020, my college at the University of Oxford hosted a Zoom seminar featuring talks by several internationally renowned scientists. The session was intended primarily for internal faculty, but, owing to the pandemic-inspired practice of disseminating scientific findings as widely as possible, other researchers and interested members of the public had also been invited. When my turn came to speak, I opened my PowerPoint and was immediately assailed with abusive messages in the chat window. To quote one verbatim: “FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING SHEEP NEW WORLD ORDER PIECE OF SHIT.”