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Sommer was quoted in an AAAS press release as saying, "When a problem arises with high uncertainty, there is an opportunity to spin the problem to avoid global panic. If you can't do anything about a warning, then there is no point in issuing a warning at all. If an extinction-type impact is inevitable, then ignorance for the populace is bliss."
These words led to a barrage of criticism from many who feared that public trust in the NEO community might be damaged.
Speaking to Space.com Sommer said, "I absolutely do not advocate government keeping secret news of any impending disaster that would wipe out the world's population� I take no stand on what the policymakers should do," he said. "I most certainly never advocated that information be withheld from the public. In the purely hypothetical scenario at issue, my point is simply that policymakers should weigh the plusses and minuses of telling people they were about to die and that there was nothing that could be done to save them. It is a value judgment for the policymaker to make."
More info: Full article at Space.com
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