Leading academics demanded more data on the new strain of coronavirus after Christmas celebrations were disrupted without consulting the scientific community at large.

Is terror being spread without scientific foundation?

Devi Sridhar said the lack of information on the new Covid-19 strain has given rise to useless rumours

Devi Sridhar, a member of the Scottish government's Covid-19 advisory group, said the alarm about a new strain without a wider peer review fuelled "useless" rumours about an increased risk to children.

                      Devi Sridhar 

Linda Bauld, president of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said that no data had been shown to experts from across the country to support the UK government's scientists' claim that the new strain was up to 70 percent more virulent than existing strains.

Source: The Times