A FRIEND emailed me a link to Youtube piece on Covid 19 by a Professor Dolores Cahill, who is professor of translational science at University College Dublin.

Before I could watch the video it was taken down for allegedly ‘violating community standards.’

Translational science is the branch of medicine concerned with converting the results of bio-medical research in to useful therapies and treatments. As a professor of this at a leading university, we have to start by assuming that at least in medical matters this woman’s views are worth hearing. Thus it is shocking that a major social media company would censor her, when she is speaking on a medical matter.

Fortunately, before it was taken down, my friend had made a summary of the main points of the professor’s talk. In short, he reports her view as being that we are greatly overreacting to Covid-19 and the lockdown is doing more harm than good.

I suspect we will be hearing similar views from a great many people in coming weeks.

If the big social media companies will censor academics within their area of competence for being off message, then what hope is there for any of the rest of us being allowed to express minority views?

In their day, Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin were all off message; would the social media giants have censored them too?

OTTO INGLIS,

Ansonhill,

Crossgates.