Epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University since 2003, announced Monday on social networks that he had been “fired” by the university.
“I am no longer a professor of medicine at Harvard,” Kulldorff wrote in a lengthy essay in City Journal, also publishing the news on his X account. “Harvard's motto is Veritas, Latin for truth. But, as I found out, the truth can get you fired.”
Kulldorff was a prominent opponent of vaccination mandates and school closures during the COVID-era debate over regulating schools and businesses. He, along with Professor Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford, published the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020, which “supports[ed] for targeted age-based protection instead of universal lockdowns, with specific suggestions on how to better protect older people, while allowing children and young adults to live close to a normal life.
HARVARD RESPONDS TO CONGRESS AND DETAILS THE “RIGOR” OF THE EXAMINATION OF PLAGIARISM ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CLAUDINE GAY
Epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University since 2003, announced Monday that he had been “fired” by the university on social networks. (Getty Images)
“The statement made it clear that there was no scientific consensus on school closures and many other containment measures. However, in response, the attacks intensified – and even became slanderous,” Kulldorff wrote, recounting criticism against him and other professors for refusing to say that the lockdown measures were a scientifically guided measure.
Kulldorff wrote that “[b[odily autonomy” was an argument against COVID vaccine mandates, calling those measures “unscientific and unethical” and restating his support for natural immunity from COVID and other diseases.
“The beauty of our immune system is that those who recover from an infection are protected if and when they are re-exposed,” Kulldorff explained, also referencing a controversial “consensus” memorandum released by three members of Harvard’s faculty for The Lancet, a prestigious scientific journal. That memo “question[ed] the existence of acquired immunity against COVID.
Kulldorff concluded that although most Harvard professors “assiduously pursue the truth in a wide variety of areas,” truth has “not been the guiding principle of Harvard's leadership.”
“Nor did academic freedom, intellectual curiosity, independence from external forces or concern for ordinary people guide their decisions,” he added.
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Kulldorff, along with Professor Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford (pictured above), published the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020, which “supports[ed] for targeted age-based protection instead of universal lockdowns, with specific suggestions on how to better protect older people, while allowing children and young adults to live close to a normal life. (Getty Images)
He wrote that Harvard must restore “academic freedom” and stop “suppressing culture” if it wants to “earn and regain public trust.”
“When scientists have different views on matters of public importance, universities should hold open, civilized debates to seek the truth,” Kulldorff argued. “Harvard could have done it – and it still can, if it wants to.”
“Almost everyone now realizes that school closures and other lockdowns were a colossal mistake. Francis Collins admitted his mistake in focusing solely on COVID without considering the collateral damage to education and non-health outcomes. linked to COVID,” continued the scientist. “It's the honest thing to do, and I hope that honesty reaches Harvard. The public deserves it, and academia needs it to restore its credibility.”
“I hope that one day Harvard will return to the path of academic freedom and independence,” he wrote.
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Harvard University did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.