Thread by @AlisonBlunt

Scientist attacks Leopoldina - for "fueling scaremongering by politicians and media" 26.12.20 journalistenwatch.com/2020/12/26/wis…
'There are actually still courageous scientists with backbone in this pandemic who oppose the pathological neurosis of politics and public health:...'

..'Professor Thomas Aigner of the University of Tübingen, previously a member of the National Academy Leopoldina (the most important advisory institute to the German Chancellor in the Corona crisis), has now resigned from the Mainz Academy of Sciences - and...'

..'is attacking the Leopoldina because he did not want to go along with the disastrous, unserious misjudgement of the scientists setting the tone there, which indirectly led to the "hard lockdown" since mid-December.'

'Aigner finds it scandalous that the tightening of the lockdown from the "breakwater" to the "hard- hitting" variant was decided on the basis of a more than subjective, in his opinion unscientific and only superficial assessment. He refers to what he calls the...'

..'Leopoldina's "7th ad hoc statement" of Dec. 8, 2020. In his view, "...this paper is not worthy of an honest, critical-balancing science oriented toward service and the well-being of human beings." The statement is found in an Open Letter from Aigner [egon-w-kreutzer.de/wp-content/upl…]'

..'to leading scientific elites.
The fact that the entire data & justification basis of the pandemic and the political decisions taken to deal with it are based without exception on a PCR test procedure that has since fallen into disrepute & may not be considered sufficiently..'

..'meaningful according to scientific criteria upsets Aigner: He refers to a 22-member international group of experts that presented a damning report on the PCR test in the specialist publication Eurosurveillance on 27. 11.2020 (the so-called Corman-Drosten review, which met..'

..'with a broad media response [laufpass.com/corona/wissens…], which nevertheless remained inconsequential).
*Ignorance of critical voices and undesirable facts*
Neither politics nor the state-loyal scientific establishment in Germany address this fundamental criticism - ..'

..'on the contrary, they ignore it completely and make decisions based on incidence figures and forecasts that are already flawed in their basic assumptions. "For me, it is incomprehensible why neither the Leopoldina, nor other academies include this ..'

..'well-founded expert opinion, and demand or initiate further, thorough and scientifically clean clarification," Aigner said. His conclusion, which he ruthlessly sends to the addressees of his letter (in addition to Leopoldina President Professor Gerald Haug, among others,..'

..'also to the President of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, Professor Reiner Anderl), is: "The damage done by the science functionaries is immense".
The professor also problematises the ultimate failure of the lockdown policy [focus.de/gesundheit/new…] ..'

..'and the increasing "influence of powerful lobby interests (e.g., the pharmaceutical industry)," and asks: "Is it really the task of an academy like the Leopoldina to fuel the scaremongering of the media and politics? Where is a previously customary broad discourse with ..'

..'a balanced appraisal of the sometimes very contrary statements by scientists and physicians from various disciplines, lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, economists and philosophers?”
As a compelling consequence of this fatal development and the Leopoldina's unreflective,..'

..'uncritical docility to a basic stance in this pandemic, preconceived by politics, which is the only one permitted by law, Aigner distances himself from the National Academy - and at the same time announces his resignation from the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature,..'

..'which is a sister organisation of the Leopoldina. He writes: "I cannot reconcile it with my conscience to be a part of this kind of science. I want to serve a science that is committed to fact-based honesty, balanced transparency, and comprehensive humanity."'

'(Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Prof. Aigner had resigned from the Leopoldina. This is incorrect, his resignation concerned only the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz).'

1/2 For those of us unaware of the role of Leopoldina, 'The Leopoldina originated in 1652 as a classical scholarly society and now has 1,600 members from almost all branches of science. In 2008, the Leopoldina was appointed as the German National Academy of Sciences and, ..'

2/2 ..'in this capacity, was invested with two major objectives: representing the German scientific community internationally, and providing policymakers and the public with science-based advice.' leopoldina.org/en/about-us/

Unofficial Eng translation of this article available for reading, downloading and sharing archive.org/details/scient…