Title:
Information squeeze: Covid-19 scientists, experts in SA silenced as government centralises communication
Authors:
Sarah Evans & Kyle Cowan
Published:
News24, 18 March 2020
From the article:
"Government has effectively gagged epidemiologists, virologists, infectious disease specialists and other experts on Covid-19 with an instruction that all requests for comment about the state of the pandemic, the virus itself and its spread should be directed to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).
The Ministry of Health confirmed this, saying that communications around the coronavirus needed to be "tightened" and that experts needed to be left alone to do their work.
This means that, for the most part, with a few exceptions, only government’s version of the spread of the virus is reaching the public. "
To read this article:
https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/information-squeeze-covid-19-scientists-experts-in-sa-silenced-as-government-centralises-communication-20200318