Police are investigating threats against leading Covid-19 researchers and scientists.
Professor Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council head, and Professor Tulio de Oliveira, Stellenbosch University researcher and head of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, are being targeted.
De Oliveira recently came under fire after identifying the Omicron variant, which led to several countries shutting their borders to South Africa.
De Oliveira has been accused on social media of causing “untold damage” to South Africa’s economy, with one Twitter user posting: “You caused more damage to the country in a few minutes, than Zuma did in 9 years.”
De Oliveira, Gray and other researchers were reportedly mentioned in a threatening letter that was also sent to the Presidency.
‘The matter was brought to our attention about a week ago. This case has been prioritised, given that the complainants are advisers to the National Command Council,’ according to national police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo.
Presidency spokesperson Tyrone Seale confirmed that ‘the Presidency received a letter headed “Warning” and referred it to the relevant authorities, in view of the important contribution of scientists and related advisers to the national effort against Covid-19’.
Professor Keymanthri Moodley, who heads the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law at Stellenbosch University’s medicine department and has called for vaccine mandates, has also received hateful comments.
Jackie Hoare, head of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Groote Schuur Hospital and a University of Cape Town psychiatry professor, spoke of health-care professionals and scientists increasingly coming under attack.
Hoare said many colleagues had been abused and threatened for their stance on vaccinations, and their mental health had suffered as a result.
The assault from the public on scientists and frontline workers had “escalated exponentially” with vaccine advocacy, Hoare said.
[Photo: Rogan Ward/Sunday Times]