Spotlight on Sir John Bell—regius professor of medicine at Oxford University

As testing and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine are hailed...why won’t Oxford University or the government disclose the “long list” of financial interests of a high profile researcher?

Paul D Thacker writing in February 2021

This article below is an absolute belter:

Tracking down John Bell: how the case of the Oxford professor exposes a transparency crisis in government

It begins:

As testing and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine are hailed as UK pandemic successes, why won’t Oxford University or the government disclose the “long list” of financial interests of a high profile researcher at the centre of both?

Paul D Thacker investigates.

Since the covid-19 outbreak began early last year, John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, has held high profile roles in the UK government’s epidemic response while also working with AstraZeneca on the vaccine.

But both Oxford and the government have refused to disclose Bell’s financial interests after The BMJ filed freedom of information (FOI) requests. More alarmingly, it appears that the government is referring media enquiries about Bell through the Cabinet Office and is scrutinising a reporter for The BMJ as it has other reporters it finds troublesome. The BMJ has been unable to gain either direct contact with Bell or contact through his employer, Oxford University, despite multiple attempts.

Not too long after this article, Bell had his say on the subject below:

Sir John Bell: ‘Most people who have had the Covid vaccine are completely safe’

During the pandemic, Bell’s voice became familiar to millions of radio listeners too. As news broke that a viable Covid-19 vaccine was on its way, following successful trials by Pfizer and BioNTech, Bell was asked on BBC Radio 4 whether the world would now return to normal. His response was an emphatic “yes, yes, yes”. His words not only lifted spirits: they moved markets.

As regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, and an early member of the government’s vaccine taskforce who had worked on Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine with AstraZeneca, the 69-year-old’s words carried weight. Last December, he confidently predicted that Omicron was “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago” and that high Covid death rates in the UK were “now history”.

Speaking to the Observer in a restaurant on Oxford’s high street, sipping a cup of tea, Bell is still upbeat. “The vaccines have had a very powerful and durable effect on death … most people who have had the vaccine are completely safe,” he says. “People dying now, since last July, are unvaccinated. That’s tragic,” he adds, while acknowledging that frail elderly people and the immunocompromised are also at greater risk.

Knowing what we know today, these are hollow sounding words from Bell.

“The vaccines have had a very powerful and durable effect on death”

“People dying now, since last July, are unvaccinated. That’s tragic,”

Sir John Bell’s Role in HM Government’s Life Sciences Policy

Subscribers may not know that Sir John Bell has been pivotal in setting UKs vision for life sciences, with this report:

Life Sciences Industrial Strategy – A report to the Government from the life sciences sector.

Bell wrote the Foreward, which concludes:

‘This strategy provides a unique opportunity for the country and I hope it can be delivered effectively in the coming years.

John Bell GBE, FRS, FMedSci, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

Chairman, Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research’

Bell and HM Government’s Life Sciences Vision

As the original industrial strategy document document rolled out, HM Government Life Sciences Vision was penned, with a Foreword by Prime Minister Rt Hon Boris Johnson, MP. The Foreward continued with Bell, two UK Government Ministers, the Chair of the NHS England, and the Chair of GSK, featured. This is an excerpt:

Delivery of all the proposed policies and programmes contained in this Vision will be challenging. However, in developing this Vision we have been struck by the extraordinary degree of alignment between all parties involved – both in terms of what should be delivered, and how we can work together most effectively to execute our plans. The pandemic response, and in particular the Vaccine Taskforce, demonstrates how we can fuse together the very best elements of industry, the NHS, Government, and philanthropy to deliver remarkable results.

Back to Paul D Thacker

The Thacker article above went on:

The Daily Mail reported on Bell’s financial ties in September 2020, noting that he had £773 000 (€893 000; $1.1m) worth of shares in the pharmaceutical company Roche. The newspaper published the story after Roche sold the government £13.5m of antibody tests, which Public Health England later found to be unreliable. Bell had headed the National Covid Testing Scientific Advisory Panel and chaired the government’s test approvals group, but he told the Mail that he had no role in the purchase and that he had disclosed to the government “a long list of my interests.” The government and Oxford University’s failure to be open about Bell’s financial ties make it impossible for the public to know what, if any, interests the professor has when influencing key decisions about which of the many covid-19 tests the UK should purchase.

Last November, The BMJ emailed both Oxford University and the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) requesting proof that Bell had disclosed his “long list” of financial interests, and asked for copies of any forms. BEIS runs the Vaccine Taskforce, which named Bell and AstraZeneca as members. A BEIS spokesperson then contradicted their own press release, telling The BMJ that Bell was a member of the “expert advisory group to the Vaccine Taskforce, rather than a member of the taskforce itself.” Both BEIS and Oxford University subsequently refused to disclose forms Bell allegedly filled out detailing his financial conflicts.

Make of this what you will, but it smells of conflict of interest, and much, much more.