Modern Medicine: The inherent conflict of interest—engrave this in your memory
Stories come and go, even the big ones.
One of the prime qualities of a reporter is: he doesn’t forget those big stories and what they mean.
Other reporters WILL forget, but he doesn’t. He holds the line.
So I give you, from years ago, 2 blockbuster quotes from recognized medical experts on the subject of Modern Medicine. These two pros are experts because they’ve probably seen and read and assessed more medical reports and studies and claims than anyone else in the Western World.
I’m talking about two editors of prestigious journals. Editors who are decidedly mainstream, who help define mainstream.
Here is the first one. Marcia Angell, who edited the New England Journal of Medicine for 20 years, wrote, in 2009: “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 of The New England Journal of Medicine.” (Dr. Marcia Angell, NY Review of Books, January 15, 2009, “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption)
The second pro is Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet. In 2015, he wrote: “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…”
“The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data. Journal editors deserve their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours. Our acquiescence to the impact factor fuels an unhealthy competition to win a place in a select few journals. Our love of ‘significance’ pollutes the literature with many a statistical fairy-tale…Journals are not the only miscreants. Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent…” (Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief, The Lancet, in The Lancet, 11 April, 2015, Vol 385, “Offline: What is medicine’s 5 sigma?”)
Yes, I’ve published these two statements before. Several times. And I’ll publish them again in the future. Because they’re merciless indictments of the whole field of medical reporting and medical studies and claims and propaganda and industry-influenced lies.
They make it clear the conflict of interest is more than a conflict: