Talk:John Edmunds (epidemiologist)

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Misleading paragraph

The text currently includes this paragraph:

"Early in the course of the disease in the UK, Edmunds was relaxed about the level of social distancing measures required. ^[1] He was a proponent of a herd immunity strategy for the country. He is on record as saying that "The only way to stop this epidemic is indeed to achieve herd immunity". ^[2]"

This seems potentially misleading to me.

Firstly, on being "relaxed about" social-distancing, from the video clip the context appears to be "relative to China", which implemented very significant (and successful) measures. The text reads to be implying more than this at present.

Secondly, regarding "herd immunity", the discussion in the cited interview is rather wide-ranging on this point, and trimming it down to a seemingly damning statement about the speaker risks WP:LIVING. In epidemiological circles the term isn't a policy, it's a point at which enough of a population is immune (for whatever reason; recovery from disease or vaccinated) for disease spread to be restricted. As such, it's not clear to me from the interview that the subject is not just stating an obvious fact of epidemiology. They certainly emphasise the (then-imminent) lockdown policies, but equally the point about how long they need to be maintained. The paragraph here seems to be using "herd immunity" to imply a link with an early government policy (or appearance of a policy).

Anyway, while the interviews cited are both interesting and relevant, this text seems to put a strong slant on them which is not clearly justified. The arguments presented are not as simple as the summary statements suggest. —PLUMBAGO 10:37, 2 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've rewritten the information in this paragraph to be more neutral and aligned with the information in the interviews. —PLUMBAGO 09:19, 3 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ "Coronavirus outbreak 'could be very serious… much more serious than we've had for many years' – Prof John Edmunds". Channel 4 News. March 3, 2020.
^ "Are We Doing Enough?; Reporter to camera Thomas Pueyo LIVE 2-WAY..." Getty Images.

[1] "Coronavirus outbreak 'could be very serious… much more serious than we've had for many years' – Prof John Edmunds". Channel 4 News. March 3, 2020.

[2] "Are We Doing Enough?; Reporter to camera Thomas Pueyo LIVE 2-WAY..." Getty Images.

[1]

[2]