A top scientist questioned virus lockdowns on Fox News. The backlash was fierce. Peter Jamison, The Washington Post Dec. 16, 2020 FacebookTwitterEmail The epidemiologist sitting before the cameras spoke with calm authority. It was late March, and as the coronavirus spread across the country, it came as no surprise that journalists were turning to John Ioannidis. The Stanford University medical professor was famous for his rigorous assessments - and frequent debunking - of disease treatments. He was a consummate physician-researcher, combining fluency in the mathematical models that predict a pathogen's lines of attack with experience at the bedsides of patients suffering from AIDS.