An Open Letter to the Scientific Community from Professor Venerino Poletti about the politicisation of Science and the Scientific Method:

“In the United States, legal proceedings are currently underway against Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022 and scientific adviser to several Presidents of the United States, concerning the decisions and actions he took in an effort to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce its mortality.

What medicine and scientific research achieved during the pandemic was extraordinary. Within less than a year, highly effective vaccines were developed. Equally rapidly, the cause of the disease and many of its principal pathogenic mechanisms were elucidated through rigorous, methodologically sound scientific investigation. The contribution of healthcare professionals, who worked on the front lines fully aware of the risks they faced in fulfilling their professional duty, was universally acknowledged.

Anthony Fauci is one of the world’s foremost authorities in infectious diseases and immunology. For many years, he has also served as a co-editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, the internationally recognised reference textbook in internal medicine.

I believe the time has come to reaffirm a fundamental principle with clarity. Medicine is grounded in the scientific method, which remains the essential instrument for understanding disease and evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. It is based on the observation of clinical phenomena, the formulation of testable hypotheses, controlled experimentation, and the critical appraisal of results. By its very nature, every scientific conclusion is provisional and remains open to revision in the light of new evidence.

From this intellectual framework emerged Evidence-Based Medicine, which integrates the best available scientific evidence with the clinician’s expertise and the patient’s values and preferences.

The scientific method does not eliminate uncertainty; rather, it addresses uncertainty rationally by distinguishing what is supported by empirical evidence from what rests on opinion, intuition, or appeals to authority. The strength of scientific medicine lies not in its infallibility but in its capacity for continuous self-correction, improving diagnosis, treatment, and the quality of patient care through a rigorous, transparent, and reproducible process.

Politics, increasingly driven by immediate emotions and the pursuit of short-term public approval, has neither the right nor the epistemological and scientific competence to undermine this principle. When political expediency or public pressure is allowed to replace the scientific method, the consequences extend far beyond science itself. They endanger not only the advancement of medicine but also the protection of public health and the preservation of fundamental civil liberties”.

Prof Venerino Poletti
*Head , Department of Medical Specialities. GB Morgagni Hospital/University of Bologna-Forlì.
*Full Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of  Bologna/Forlì-Ravenna Campus. Secretary Tel +39-0543-735500
*Honorary Professor, Department of Respiratory Diseases & Allergy, Aarhus University, (DK)

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