I think this is placing the blame on the victims rather than the policies that are actually allowing these things to happen. Like the PI clearly made a mistake, but it's a minor one whose consequences have been made wholly disproportionate due to xenophobic policy.
He's even quoted as admitting as much in the article:
>No one at Harvard feels worse than Dr. Peshkin. Again and again, he has asked himself why he allowed Ms. Petrova to take the risk of carrying the samples. He rereads the text exchange he had with Ms. Petrova while she was sitting on the plane.
Also Dr. Peshkin didn't send her, she was already there for vacation:
>Dr. Peshkin worried she would burn out. He was relieved when she told him she was taking a vacation to France, where the pianist Andras Schiff was giving a concert. She bought theater tickets and planned trips to see friends from Moscow, now scattered across Europe.
>“I said, ‘Well, you’re there,’” Dr. Peshkin said. “Why don’t you get this package?”
So not only is this lack of empathy it's also mischaracterizing the situation.
He's even quoted as admitting as much in the article:
>No one at Harvard feels worse than Dr. Peshkin. Again and again, he has asked himself why he allowed Ms. Petrova to take the risk of carrying the samples. He rereads the text exchange he had with Ms. Petrova while she was sitting on the plane.
Also Dr. Peshkin didn't send her, she was already there for vacation:
>Dr. Peshkin worried she would burn out. He was relieved when she told him she was taking a vacation to France, where the pianist Andras Schiff was giving a concert. She bought theater tickets and planned trips to see friends from Moscow, now scattered across Europe.
>“I said, ‘Well, you’re there,’” Dr. Peshkin said. “Why don’t you get this package?”
So not only is this lack of empathy it's also mischaracterizing the situation.