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The arrogance and utter lack of compassion that parts of the expert scientific community exhibited during the pandemic were fully visible on Thursday.

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One of the leading scientists at the self-proclaimed and self-sustaining Ontario Science Table told employees and restaurant owners to “stop complaining” when he called for their incomes to be drastically cut.

Science Table Scientific Director Dr. Peter Juni was appearing on CBC’s Power and Politics show when he made one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve heard him make, which says something. As host Paul Hunter asked how to deal with an audience exhausted by restrictions after nearly two years, Juni struck up his elitist pose.

“What’s the problem with getting back to 25% capacity in a restaurant?” Juni asked. “Life will go on. “

Perhaps, but it will be quite different for the restaurant owner who loses his job or sees his teams reduced with a reduction to 25% of his capacity. It will be more difficult for the restaurateur to see his level of debt increase because once again, he is being asked to bear the brunt of the restrictions.

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“We have to stop moaning, face reality and do the right thing,” Juni said.

I’m pretty sure this university researcher who didn’t miss any of his generous government-funded paychecks during the pandemic thinks the little people who don’t earn the high salary he earns are only moaning then that they worry about their future.

The patio season has gone well in Ontario and reducing restaurant capacity to 25% will result in job losses and business closures. I’m not sure Juni, sitting in her lavish Toronto home conducting TV interviews demanding others to suffer, really understands this.

His comments contrasted sharply with the comments of the current Science Table official earlier today. As he released the latest Science Table modeling, Dr Steini Brown said decisions need to consider the impact on people’s livelihoods.

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Brown was pleading with the public to get vaccinated, get vaccinated and reduce their own contacts by 50% to help “mitigate” the impact of the rapidly growing Omicron variant. Yet when asked about further restrictions on bars and restaurants, Brown displayed an empathy that escaped Juni later that same day.

“That’s a really tough question because it’s a question that, you know, you have to consider both the impact on these businesses and the impact on the spread of the pandemic. And it’s not a question. which I would like to be faced with to make a decision, ”Brown said.

Brown was humble with these comments. As a public health expert, he knows he views the pandemic from a special perspective and this is reflected in his advice to government. The government that receives this advice must look at the big picture.

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We saw in the recent report of the Canadian Medical Association that thousands of people have died due to the impact of public health restrictions. There are those who have died as a result of surgeries, treatments, or failed diagnoses, and then there is the opioid overdose crisis.

Opioid overdose deaths in Canada have fallen from an average of 10 per day before the pandemic to 20 per day in the first few months of 2021. Addiction, driven by desperation, is a real problem elected officials must take this into account when evaluating next steps. .

Juni doesn’t need to consider issues like this, he sits in his ivory tower producing models that are more often wrong than correct while asking the people below him to pay the price for his. errors.

The Ford government needs solid medical and scientific advice to deal with this pandemic, what they don’t need is advice from a disconnected scholar who appears to be more interested in his TV appearances than his the production of valuable work.

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