George Church is sorry about the Epstein matter

George Church, one of Harvard’s top biologists, is deeply contrite about holding discussions with financier — and accused sex trafficker — Jeffrey Epstein. Church, who communicated with Epstein even after the latter pleaded guilty in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution, claimed it was a case of “nerd tunnel vision,” he told STAT’s Sharon Begley.

Epstein, who was indicted last month, had multiple meetings with various biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and other researchers at Harvard and elsewhere, as he sought to bolster his tarnished reputation in the financial world — claiming on his website that he had “the privilege of sponsoring many prominent scientists.”

Church said his fellow scientists may have been somewhat naive to Epstein’s transgressions, and basked in his flattery.