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Is fear of how antivaxers react to findings causing scientists to self-censor?

#1
C C Offline
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-ant...e-hostage/

EXCERPT: It’s rare that I’m mentioned in the New York Times (or any other national media outlet). [...] It turns out that it’s an article about a topic very relevant to SBM and that it also (somewhat) misrepresents (or at least incompletely represents) my position on whether certain studies should be funded or not. It’s by Melinda Wenner Moyer and entitled Anti-Vaccine Activists Have Taken Vaccine Science Hostage. It’s basically about how the manner in which antivaccine activists leap on any study that questions the efficacy or safety of vaccines could be causing some scientists to self-censor. It’s a worthwhile discussion, and certainly there is a germ of truth in the article, but I think Moyer overstates her case and conflates two different things. [...]

So, yes, I’m guilty as charged. I did question why the CDC funded this study. However, in my defense I argue that the reason that I questioned why the CDC funded this study is very, very important (and valid) indeed, so much so that the paragraph in Moyer’s NYT article misrepresents what I said by omission. [...]

Unfortunately, in 2018, science-funding is a zero-sum game. Funding granted to an unnecessary study like the small study of the flu vaccine and miscarriages that I wrote about is funding that didn’t go to a study of vaccine safety that might actually have told us something new, rather than retreading where many investigators have trod before and muddying the waters in such a way that even more funding will have to be devoted to a larger followup study on what is almost certainly a false positive. I get it. An NYT article has strict word limits, and something’s got to give. A reporter or op-ed columnist can’t always explain everything, and it’s good that this reporter linked to my post, so that the interested reader could check out what I said for himself. But, really, how many readers will do that? I know from a long history of blogging that no more than around 10% ever clink on a prominent link; for links buried in the middle of the text it’s more like 1-5%. And what about print readers? There’s no link for them to click.

[...] So there’s Moyer’s central thesis. Fear of the antivaccine movement is eroding the integrity of science. Whenever I see a statement this bold, I have to ask: Is the evidence presented adequate enough to support the “hypothesis,” if you will, strongly enough that I buy it. After reading Moyer’s op-ed, I must say that the answer is: No, but I could change my mind with more. [...]

The evidence presented by Moyer is basically all anecdotal, the typical “both sides” construct so beloved of journalists, with examples of scientists who feel apprehensive about talking to reporters about studies of vaccines that show less benefit or more risk from vaccines and report having experienced pressure not to publish. On the one side, we have Dr. Paul Offit arguing that “small, inconclusive, worrying studies should not be published because they could do more harm than good.” He has a point, but I would have phrased it differently.

Let’s take a look at the examples of “science stifled” that Moyers chooses to use. There are three...

MORE: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-ant...e-hostage/
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#2
Zinjanthropos Offline
Was going to go on and on about the evolution of society & medicine but then I thought how fortunate I am to be alive and growing older without really knowing of all the funding for past studies that have enabled me to cheat death along the way.
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