There’s been some concern on social media after a CV belonging to Professor Young, Chief Scientific Advisor for Northern Ireland, was uncovered claiming that he was a “Member, Rosuvastatin Scientific Advisory Board (UK: AstraZeneca)”.
Who and what are Rosuvastatin?
Rosuvastatin is a “lipid lowering drug” also known as “Crestor”.
Crestor, in turn, is a brand owned by AstraZeneca.
No Journalist Interested
Given, presumably, that I have been researching the COVID-19 data from Northern Ireland, several people reached out to me with concerns about any possible links between the CSA and AstraZeneca given the CV revelation.
I then highlighted the matter on social media and deferred to journalists in the hope they would seek clarification from Professor Young. However, none of them took the issue up.
Then, on the 31st August, Stephen Nolan tweeted saying that he was having the Professor on his show on the 1st September. I took the opportunity to suggest to Mr Nolan that he seek clarification from the Mr Young as I was concerned the longer it went unaddressed the more likely conspiracy theories would take root. Stephen either didn’t see my tweet, or did, and felt that it was not worth taking any further.
Of the 6 journalists I reached out to, 1 responded saying they felt the matter should at the very least be clarified but “there’s no appetite to do that” [from their boss].
So, I decided to reach out to Professor Young myself.
On the face of it, one could be forgiven for asking; if Professor Young was indeed on the Scientific Advisory Board of an AstraZeneca subsidiary – could that be deemed as a conflict of interests? This is due to the fact that the UK government have ordered 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Emails
On the 31st August I contacted the Department of Health, for the attention of Professor Young, and asked:
It has also come to my attention that the Chief Scientific Advisor, Ian Young, is recorded as being on the scientific advisory board of “AstraZeneca”. Recently the UK government has requested 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from makers AstraZeneca.
One could be forgiven for being uncomfortable with a possible conflict of interests given his role as scientific advisor on COVID-19 to the Assembly.
May I request clarity on the issue and the true extent of Mr Young’s ties to AstraZeneca, if indeed these ties still exist? If these ties do exist, has Ian Young had *any* contact with AstraZeneca in relation to their vaccine?
I appreciate this may require a FOI submission, if so then I will take that route but I felt it proper to ask you first.
*POI – In the email I referred to “100 million doses” of the vaccine. This was the current, up-to-date, information from the UK Government website at the time the email was sent.
I received a response from the Professor yesterday, 15th September.
I am not a member of any Scientific Advisory Board of Astra Zeneca. I have no ties with the company of any kind. I have had no contact with Astra Zeneca in relation to their vaccine.
I have been made aware of a number of statements about this alleged relationship circulating on social media. I believe they relate to a publically available CV which indicates that I was a member of an advisory board for a specific Astra Zeneca lipid lowering drug some time prior to 2012. I have had no dealings with Astra Zeneca since that time, which predates my appointment to the Department by a number of years.
Professor Ian Young, Chief Scientific Advisor for Northern Ireland
I think you’ll agree that Professor Young has made his position on the matter quite clear and categorically answered the questions I put to him.
Hopefully this resolves any suspicions or doubt some may have had on the matter.
I’d like to thank Professor Young for taking the time to respond to me and again reiterate that these are the sort of matters journalists should be dealing with.