I was surprised it wasn’t suppressed by the Chinese govern- ment, it was actually allowed by journalists that were writing about it, and I didn’t experience a lot of backlash because of that. Actually the Chinese doctor wrote me an email saying that he appreciated my feedback and that he would look into these cases. He sent a very polite email so I sent him back that I appreciated that he would look into these cases and left it there. There are certain subjects that I know when we write about them in Retraction Watch, they have tended in the past to re- ally draw a lot of ire. I’m thinking anything about vaccines and autism, anything about climate change, stem cell research. For a while that last subject has sort of died down. But now it’s become a highly politically charged atmosphere. Do you feel that this pandemic has raised the profile of people such as yourself who we refer to as scientific sleuths, people who look critically and analytically at new research? Yeah, some people. But I’m also worried that some people who are great scientists and have shown a lot of critical thinking are being attacked because of that. If you just look at what happened to Dr. Fauci, I think that’s a prime example. Where somebody who actually is very knowledgeable and very cautious of new science has not been widely accepted as a great leader, in our country at least. It’s sad to see that. I’m just worried how long he will be at his position, to be honest. We noticed a big uptick in our traffic in the last few days to Retraction Watch and it turns out it was because someone we wrote about a number of years ago has really hopped on the bandwagon to try and discredit and even try to have Dr. Fauci fired. It’s one of these reminders that the way people think about scientists has, in many cases, far more to do with their own history or their own perspective going in than with any reality or anything about the science. It’s pretty disturbing, but it’s not a new thing. This has been happening for a while.
Ivan:
Elisabeth:
Ivan:
WHISTLEBLOWERS:
The Science Sleuths Holding Fraudulent Research Accountable
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