Experts uncover hidden truths in COVID-19 Data: New letter calls for better policies based on real evidence

CERES team
4 minutes ago
3 min read

UK, 9 February, 2026. A group of researchers from around the world, led by Dr. Gerry A. Quinn and Dr. Ronan Connolly from the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES), has just published a response letter in the International Journal of Public Health.

Titled “Response: ‘Letter to the Editor: Lessons to Be Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic: Some Further Ideas’”, it directly follows up on their earlier paper, “What Lessons can Be Learned From the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic?”. The new piece thanks the public health researcher, Prof. Donzelli, who wrote a thoughtful letter commenting on their original work, while clarifying some points and adding more evidence to back up their concerns about how the pandemic was handled.

The core message? A lot of important truths about COVID-19 were right there in the data all along – but they got buried under misleading interpretations, overly confident models, and rushed policy choices.

The authors argue that the course of the pandemic often unfolded independently of lockdowns and other restrictions, that those non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) caused real harm (think mental health struggles, economic fallout, and widened inequalities), and that serious questions remain about COVID-19 vaccine safety and how well they actually worked.

They point to things like rising all-cause mortality in some vaccinated age groups (with detailed public reporting mysteriously stopping in 2023), evidence that more vaccine doses were sometimes linked to higher infection risks rather than protection, and the known (though officially described as uncommon) risk of myocarditis after vaccination.

They stress that while severe, confirmed cases are rare, there could be a much bigger hidden problem of milder or undetected heart inflammation with possible longer-term effects. This comes at a time when more people – including some governments – are starting to ask hard questions about data that was downplayed or kept under wraps during the crisis.

The letter suggests scientists and policymakers missed some crucial details in the rush, and that the old justifications for keeping certain information anonymous or suppressed just don't hold up anymore.

As Dr. Gerry A. Quinn, the lead author, put it:

“Solid public health decisions can't come from shaky data analysis. People shouldn't have had to endure poorly designed policies during COVID—only to see similar mistakes repeated later with the same predictable damage.”

The original paper already laid out problems like the over-dependence on scary model predictions, the limited real-world impact of lockdowns and similar measures, COVID-19 vaccines that didn't stop transmission as promised, and the way alternative scientific views were often labelled “misinformation” and shut down. Together, both pieces make a case for more careful, evidence-driven reviews, proper cost-benefit thinking, and real open discussion before the next crisis hits.

The team behind this latest response letter spans multiple disciplines and countries, including researchers connected to Yale University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Waterloo in Canada, Rey Juan Carlos University in Spain, Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, and others. It's a broad, international call to get things right moving forward.

Experts uncover hidden truths in COVID-19 Data: New letter calls for better policies based on real evidence

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