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Michelle Rabin Ph. D.'s avatar

I hear you. This has not happened over the last 2 years of Covid. Remember what the editors in chief of the 2 leading peer reviewed journals have publically stated, some back in 2002.

Dr. Marcia Angell, Harvard physician and editor in chief of the NEJM said:

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor.”

Dr. Relman, another former editor in chief of the NEJM said this in 2002 - “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.”

Richard Horton, editor in chief of the Lancet said:

“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness” (2). Horton R. Offline: What is medicine’s 5 sigma? [Last accessed August 5, 2015]. www.thelancet.com. Available from: http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2960696-1.pdf.

They were telling us all quite clearly that the public health agencies, research centers and academic institutions of our country have been captured by the pharmaceutical industry. No one took any action. It is interesting that Richard Horton, then editor of the Lancet, is stil editor in chief and despite his cries of science "turning toward the darkness", HE is continuing to produce tainted science.

I feel your pain - all of us who aren't living in an alternate reality, feel it as well. We thought the Big Lie was a nightmare that was damaging our very democracy. The unnecessary deaths of half a million Americans however is a Bigger Lie I'm afraid.

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Data Humanist's avatar

The Lancet owes the scholarly world an apology. More generally, as you well point out, our institutions of public trust have thoroughly undermined themselves. I am overwhelmed by the range and depth of failure. Which is also the absence of checks and balances, whether academic (research), political, journalistic, or otherwise. We got here so quickly that it must have been long in the making. An erosion. The structures in place weakened, consistently compromised. Then with an additional stressor, the collapse -- the catastrophe. It's honestly like I am walking around in the ruins of the academic and intellectual world I grew up with, grew up in.

The good news, I suppose. Denmark has called the pandemic over. Japan never went in for vaccine mandates, and did allow doctors to treat Covid patients with ivermectin. The USA is not all the world. But I am still struggling to process it all: including and most disturbing the rage and hatred continually expressed by many of my fellow Americans against anyone who does not meet the ever-shifting definition of "fully vaccinated."

If the vaccine were a sterilizing vaccine, I might understand that rage and hatred a bit better. If Dying from Covid (as opposed to "Dying with Covid") presented a serious mortality risk to even a small percentage of the population -- and not a percentage of a percentage, I also might understand that rage and hatred a bit better.

Right now, I'm having trouble grasping it. It truthfully seems like the American public is being manipulated to destructive ends by a predatory elite. I hate conspiracy theories. But I don't know what else might explain it -- particularly since over the past two years, we've seen an immense transfer of wealth from roughly lower 60% percent of society to the upper 2%. But even if this does explain something, and again I hate conspiracy theories, how does that help us? I apologize for presently having no solutions to contribute.

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