Swiss health minister rues science judgement during pandemic

Challenging scientific advice could have averted some mistakes that were made during the coronavirus pandemic, says Swiss interior minister Alain Berset. In an interview with Swiss public broadcaster SRF, Berset admitted that he was too quick to implement the views of scientists during the early stages of the pandemic. “At the beginning I did not question science enough,” he said. A case in point was the advice that face masks would be ineffective at containing infections and could even encourage the spread of Covid. “This led to the fact that we claimed that masks could even be harmful,” said Berset whose portfolio includes health issues. In April of last year, the government advised against the wearing of face masks, but later reversed that decision to make them mandatory on public transport and then a wider array of public places. Multiple mea culpas This is not the first time the Berset has admitted to mistakes in government policy surrounding coronavirus. In August he...