An open tweet to @CMO_England and @uksciencechief
Thread:
This is your moment. Right now. You need to ask yourself this question, and reflect. Then you need to answer openly and honestly. How do you want to be remembered? When your grandchildren’s children are studying this 1/

time in history, how do you want them to learn about you and your place in it? You are both learned men. You have both worked very hard to rise to your positions. You are both men of science.

Yet right now ALL science is being tarnished by Johnson’s desperate actions to hold 2/

on to Cummings at any cost. That cost will end up being thousands of lives if the way people in England are breaking lockdown is any indication. You are staying silent either by threat or free will—but the damage is immeasurable. We don’t believe you. Trust in your science is 3/

eroding. And if the public have no faith in your recommendations, they will not follow them. That will cost lives—possibly thousands upon thousands of lives. And their deaths will be on YOUR collective shoulders because you have chosen to stay silent.
So I ask you again. 4/

Is this how you want to be remembered? As men who let people die rather than speak out? As men who destroyed public trust in scientific findings? Or are you so desperate to cling onto your position that you are willing to be sidelined by a man who is fast losing the respect 5/

of his own Party? These are your choices. You can choose to do the right thing. Resign your positions. Hold a press conference and tell the public the truth. One man’s actions. Answer openly and honestly all journalistic questions. Only then might you restore some public 6/

trust. You might still be able to save umpteen lives. What is it worth? How do you want to be remembered? I am only one person, but I care very deeply about the future. And our future will heavily rely on science. It must hold the public’s faith if we are to have any chance. 7/

That decision is in your hands. For the sake of all of us, I pray that you make the right one. - Indra J.