TORONTO – Dr David Fisman’s resignation from Ontario’s Covid-19 Science Advisory Table has sparked furious controversy: parties – from the NDP to the Liberals and Greens – are asking Prime Minister Ford to clarify his claims that politics “would seem to influence the final recommendations of the table”. The epidemiologist of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, publicly announced his resignation from the scientific committee on Monday with the publication of a notification letter on social media. “It is with mixed emotions that I decided to resign from the scientific and modeling committees of Ontario – tweeted Fisman (in the pic) – I wish every success to the colleagues who remain. Ontario needs a public health care system away from politics”.
In the letter, dated August 20, Fisman praised the scientific table’s ability to apply a lens of fairness to its recommendations, adding that he is proud of what has been achieved during the pandemic. The doctor, however, noted that he was “increasingly uncomfortable with the level at which political considerations seem to drive the results emerging from the Science Advisory Table, or at least with the level at which these results are transparently shared with the public”.
“I found myself in the uncomfortable position of repeatedly publicly disagreeing with the guide at the table, although in hindsight I remain comfortable with my positions on the relevant issues – he said – I do not want to remain in this uncomfortable position, where I have to choose between quiet relationships with colleagues on the one hand, and the need to tell the truth during a public health crisis”.
The specialist’s complaint is precisely that of the lack of clarity on the part of the government and its interference in a field – the scientific one – from which it should only be assisted in this difficult pandemic. Fishman reportedly sent the resignation letter the day before posting on social media that the Ontario Science Table study “projects a sad worsening.” “I don’t understand why they don’t release this information. It is important that people understand what awaits us and what is at stake”, reads the tweet posted by Fisman who has often criticized the Ford government and its senior public health officials for managing the crisis in schools and testing and was one of the first supporters of the theory that the coronavirus is a virus that is airborne transmitted, theory supported by an ever-increasing amount of scientific data.
Defending the failure to release data that predicts “a difficult reality” in the coming months is the Director of Communications for the Science Table Robert Steiner: “We are working to understand what autumn could be like, but we only release the models when we have examined a range of different individual models and generated consensus among a number of different teams (and) modelers; otherwise it is only the point of view of a single scientist based on a single method: a point of view too narrow to be solid. We are only now starting the process of reviewing and generating consensus. To generate the modeling data requires a lot of mathematical and scientific work.”
The latest modeling data released to the public, dating back to June 10, indicated that the threat of a fourth wave caused by the Delta variant was unlikely in Ontario, although it was possible.
But despite the province’s Science Table trying to tone down the controversy, political leaders are on a war footing. Green Party leader Mike Schreiner said in a statement that Premier Doug Ford faces the charges. “The Science Table has been a crucial partner in navigating the COVID-19 public health crisis. The resignation of a member, ostensibly in protest, is a cause for concern. – said Green Party leader Mike Schreiner – children will return to school in a few days, while cases, hospitalizations in general and those in intensive care are increasing. Yet Doug Ford has been missing for weeks. I ask Ford to do his job clarifying what’s going on.”
Andrea Horwath, of the NDP echoed Schreiner by stating that the premier “has not listened to the Science Advisory Table in the past, misrepresented their recommendations and repeatedly failed to act on their advice to protect Ontario residents.”
Meanwhile, Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca thanked Fisman for his commitment during the pandemic “despite an anti-science government”.
