Meet Professor Sunetra Gupta, the Indian-origin woman who is questioning UK's approach to COVID and its impact on people, especially those living on the margins. She co-authored an open letter addressed to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on their efforts during this pandemic.
Gupta, an Indian infectious disease epidemiologist and a professor at the University of Oxford, led the group of thirty two academics including Professor Carl Heneghan, University of Buckingham’s Professor Karol Sikora, and Sam Williams, director of the consultancy firm Economic Insight. The group believes UK's approach to solving for the COVID crisis is off track, knee-jerk when it comes to rising cases and hospitalisations. This criticism has been noticed by academics around the world.
Gupta's main area of interest is the evolution of diversity in pathogens, with particular reference to the infectious disease agents that are responsible for malaria, influenza and bacterial meningitis. She was a Principal Investigator in the Oxford Martin Programme on Vaccines, which was part of the Oxford Martin School from 2010-2015.
Sunetra Gupta has said social media attacks ‘stifling coronavirus debate’.
Gupta and her group recommend more targeted measures by UK that protect the groups most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Over the past few months of the lockdown, Gupta has argued that the cost of lockdown will be too high for the poorest in society.
"In summary, our view is that the existing policy path is inconsistent with the known risk-profile of COVID-19 and should be reconsidered," notes the open letter.
"Instead, more targeted measures that protect the most vulnerable from COVID, whilst not adversely impacting those not at risk, are more supportable... Such targeted measures should be explored as a matter of urgency, as the logical cornerstone of our future strategy," the group says.
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