Committee of Concerned Scientists

An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

An independent non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

CCS Expresses Concern About Harassment of Scientists Working on COVID-19

The Committee of Concerned Scientists is an independent organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars that has been working, since 1972, on the advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for our colleagues all over the world.

At this time of great international effort on the containment of COVID-19, we are concerned with the politicization of the response to the pandemic that is taking place in a number of countries, including the United States.

Threats and censorship experienced by scientists and medical doctors at the inception of COVID-19 in China in December 2019 contributed to the disease becoming a world-wide pandemic.

Suppression of the data on COVID-19 in Iran has led to its exponential spread in the country.

In the United States the news on COVID-19 that comes from politicians and polarized media is often driven by political narratives rather than science. Misleading statements by government officials involving the use of face masks, as well as other measures designed to contain the infection, have been based on political considerations.

In Egypt, health professionals who sounded the alarm about the inadequate response to COVID-19 have been arrested. In Russia, medical doctors who criticized government response to the pandemic have been threatened with arrest and imprisonment. In Brazil, scientists who opposed the views of the president have been harassed on social media.

Politically motivated harassment is destructive to the state of mind of a scientist. It impedes one’s ability to conduct successful research. This delays finding a cure against COVID-19 and prolongs the suffering of the population affected by it.

We would like to call upon world leaders, governors, heads of scientific institutions, editors of science journals, news outlets and social media to support a free, unbiased exchange of information generated by honest scientific research based on the accumulation of data.

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

Myles Axton, Chief Editor, Genetics and Genomics Next

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Giorgio Parisi, Roma I University La Sapienza

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs*

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Former Honorary Board Members

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deseased) Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser (deceased), Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

Louis Nirenberg (deceased), New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Myriam Sarachick (deceased), City College of New York

Harold Scheraga (deceased), Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Steven Weinberg (deceased), University of Texas, Austin*

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

Committee of Concerned Scientists

c/o Alexandra R. Bender, Executive Director
P.O. Box 273
Mountainhome, PA 18342
abender@concernedscientists.org