Neil Ferguson release his epidemiological model code .. to a few "experts."
Neil Ferguson has finally revealed the code of his epidemiological model...to a handful of people.
That's not how it's done. In scholarly work the code should be made widely available to scholars for scrutiny. Instead he's kept his secret, finally sharing it with a very few people.
Add to that that his modeling of Covid 19 spread used neat round numbers in its assumptions for compliance with and effect of particular policies without - it looked to me - any modeling or data to justify the link between policy and assumed outcome.
Add also to that his track record of over-predicting deaths from viral illnesses, and it looks to me as though Ferguson is a fraud, someone who's been successful by being eye-catching, and whose every failure can be retroactively justified, either as "deaths were lower because he warned us," or "we got lucky, but better safe than sorry." In other words, he's making unfalsifiable predictions but hiding them under the guise of science.
This kind of pseudoscience is a stain to society, particularly during immense times of crisis. While the world at large is busy tackling the pandemic, dealing with all sorts of social unrest, there will be a time where his actions should and will be held accountable, at the very least, his work scrutinised.