Australians for Science and Freedom

… For Science

The combination of growing numbers with natural immunity from infections, the protective benefits of vaccines for high-risk elderly, and diminished lethality of newer virus variants of concern mean we are at a good place for reevaluating the relationship between good science, good policy and good politics.

I am part of a diverse group of Australian clinicians, academics, lawyers and social, economic and policy commentators united in growing disquiet at federal and state responses to the pandemic. Our main purpose is to reflect on mistakes made and lessons to be learnt in order to avoid repetitions in the future of policy interventions that rely on social coercion and population-wide mandates.

We believe good science leads to good policies and good politics must underpin, not undermine free societies.

The name of the group is yet to be settled. "Academy for Science and Freedom" could cause confusion with the US group and also worry those disillusioned with academe as the incubator of cancel culture and viewpoint conformism ("'University' is the antonym for 'diversity'"). "Australians for Science and Freedom" broadens the group beyond the academy, yet keeps the intellectual and philosophical links with the US group through the common acronym ASF.

Driven by intellectual curiosity, questioning existing knowledge and the fit between theoretical frameworks and empirical data is the essence of the scientific enterprise. In July 2021, an article in the Wall Street Journal explored how science lost the public's trust. A poll by the respected Pew Research Center on February 15 mapped falling confidence in medical scientists between April 2020 and December 2021. Journalists and elected officials fared significantly worse.

… and Freedom

The freedom side of the agenda has three components.

First, free inquiry, including the freedom to be skeptical and question established wisdom or the dominant worldview and set of beliefs, is integral to scientific advance and progress. Without this, we would all still be flat-earthers.

Second of course and, if anything, even more important, is the meaning, practices and survival of a free society instead of a command-and-control society with a China-style social credit system for rewarding compliant and punishing deviant behavior.

Finally, freedom is integral to the practice of medicine.

It underpins the sacred Hippocratic Oath of "First, Do No Harm." It is indispensable to the principle of informed consent to treatment options, if necessary after second and third opinions. And it is fundamental to the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. It's deeply unethical for the health bureaucrat and drug regulator to insert themselves as disinterested third parties into that relationship. There is absolutely no substitute for the combination of doctors' formal training, clinical experience and intimate knowledge of the patient.

Recalling Ronald Reagan's 1986 bon mot about the nine most terrifying words in the English language, I would have much more confidence in my doctor giving me their best professional advice without a nanny state as a controlling third party in the relationship.

Conversely, the Queensland bill may be our Stalingrad moment, our line in the sand, if I may mix my metaphor about a place that is synonymous with deep snow. If most Australians remain apathetic to this level of state control and not enough doctors say "Thus far but no further," then we will surely cross over into the Age of Dystopia.