Top immunologist at the Sri Jayawardenepura University Professor Neelika Malavige has refuted media reports that have misquoted her pertaining to the reopening of schools.
Stating that several media institutions had misquoted her by taking a single sentence out of a 30 -40 minute webinar, the Professor reiterated that she did not state that authorities should open schools at present.
Issuing a statement on Facebook, Professor Neelika Malavige called on the media in Sri Lanka to refrain from misquoting individuals and posting content out of context.
Full statement:
I have been silent all this time while Sri Lankan media has been misquoting me, stating things that I never said, taking a single sentence out of a 30-40 minute webinar I do, and take the whole thing out of context. I am just sick and tired of Sri Lankan media doing this to me. This must stop! Why are they doing this? Is there no stop to this? Don’t they know the harm they are doing by misquoting things and even worse posting things that I never said. Also, to all media out there, when I do a 30-40 minute webinar and you take just 1 sentence out of the whole webinar and put is as a headline, how misleading is that?
I did NOT say that we should open schools now. We have a lockdown and cases and deaths have just started to come down. If anyone is interested about what I actually said during a webinar at Gateway college, please watch the below.
All those who just comment on the media articles shown below, without checking if I said this or not, those humiliate me, ridicule me, I have nothing to say to you too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op1tCk73qzc
FYI during the last 8 weeks the only time I spoke to media, was at the Rupavahini ‘Husma’ shown on all TV channels simultaneously and Sunday times. All other times during the last 8 weeks, when I have been quoted on media, was either they took it from a lecture/webinar I did, or they dreamt it. (NewsWire)