Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, well-known for main the cost in opposition to lockdowns throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, seems to be overseeing a reign of terror on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH). The fast targets: ladies, minorities and revered scientists on the company.
Merrill Goozner
From varied information sources this morning:
- The Washington Submit reported that 38 of 43 consultants reduce final month from the NIH evaluation boards have been ladies, blacks or Hispanic. About 200 inside scientists belong to evaluation boards that oversee research involving psychological well being, most cancers and infectious illnesses. None got causes for his or her firing.
- A number of sources reported that one of many prime meals scientists at NIH has give up his publish after the company refused to let him communicate to reporters about his vitamin examine that questioned the addictiveness of processed meals. The findings contradict the beliefs of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We experienced what amounts to censorship and controlling of the reporting of our science, Dr. Kevin Hall, 54, told the New York Times. Fearing Bhattacharya’s next move would be to interfere with the design of future studies, he decided to take early retirement. “That would make me hate my job every day,” he mentioned.
- Nobody within the official world of autism analysis has been contacted by HHS or NIH to take part in a examine geared toward figuring out the causes of autism’s rising incidence, reported this week by the CDC. The HHS secretary mentioned yesterday he would announce the examine’s roster inside two or three weeks. STAT adopted up by contacting 10 organizations concerned in autism analysis. None had but been requested to take part within the examine. “The scientists ASF (the Autism Science Foundation) works with have NOT been contacted, trust me, I’ve asked around,” Alycia Halladay, ASF’s chief science officer emailed STAT. Halladay additionally serves on the committee that coordinates autism analysis throughout federal well being businesses. It hadn’t been contacted, both.
Do you bear in mind what you have been taught in ninth grade science? Ask a query; type a speculation; conduct an experiment; analyze the info; draw a conclusion. Given what’s happening at NIH, frontline reporters, scientific and medical journals and most of the people might want to fastidiously monitor the make-up of each panel and scientist conducting analysis for NIH over the following 4 years to find out if the fifth step — drawing a conclusion — has been put on the entrance of the road relating to selecting members and awarding grants.
