Medical Journals Under Scrutiny From Justice Department
Prior Editor of New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Marcia Angell holding papers while standing ... More outside office; journal's logo on glass door in back. (Photo by) Getty Images
The interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has been sending letters to a handful of influential medical journals asking questions concerning influence from funders, competing viewpoints and misinformation.
Among the journals targeted include the New England Journal of Medicine, CHEST and JAMA.
Dr. Eric Rubin, the editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, said , 'we were concerned because there were questions that suggested that we may be biased in the research we report.'
These threatening letters to multiple medical journals set a dangerous precedent to science and journalism because free speech in medical journals should be protected under the First Amendment. Medical journals, particularly the ones that have been targeted by the federal government, engage in a rigorous peer-review process before articles are accepted for publication.
When an article is submitted to a journal, most medical journals utilize double-blinded peer review, meaning the article is sent out typically to two to four medical experts to assess the validity of the manuscript and if publication is warranted. The reviewers have no knowledge of who the authors are, and the authors similarly do not know who their reviewers are. In addition, authors are always asked to acknowledge any funding they have received for the research they are presenting and writing about. In this way, medical journals are constantly and meticulously reducing and eliminating bias in the publication process.
Medical journals are critical for the general public because they serve as the foundation for evidence-based medicine. Medical journals play an integral role in shaping healthcare guidelines, vaccine recommendations as well as influencing preventive screening guidelines for important diseases like cancer. They ensure this important information is accessible for the general public to understand and support informed decision-making to empower doctors, patients and news outlets to make informed decisions about health. Journals are responsible for disseminating cutting-edge research that leads to improved diagnostics and potential cures for diseases that could be life-threatening. Finally, the rigorous peer-review from scientific journals ensures that all the medical information reaching the public is accurate and credible.
Make no mistake about this- the letters sent to some of the most influential medical journals by the federal government are a threat to science, free speech and public health. These letters are an attempt to influence scientists and potentially silence them, particularly if what they are publishing is contradictory to what the current administration believes about vaccines, diseases and health. The Trump administration as already purged important health information from websites, halted flu vaccination campaigns and curtailed studies about misinformation.
Medical journals should be free and safe from any sort of political censorship. These journals do not spread propaganda, they are carefully peer-reviewed and are designed to educate Americans and the public with evidence-based information that help save lives. It is through medical journals we know that vaccines are safe and effective in combating measles, as opposed to other therapies like steroids or cod liver oil.
When evidence-based information, particularly with respect to health gets censored, it impacts the health of all Americans. It provides a medium for misinformation to go unchecked and spread instantaneously, faster than any virus given how fast information can spread on social media. Americans are already paying the price on misinformation, given the measles outbreaks throughout America with parents giving their children vitamin A as opposed to vaccines in an attempt to treat and prevent measles. Guidance for health should never be shaped by a particularly ideology, but rather by data and evidence, and this is precisely what medical journals provide.
The right to scientific expression is fundamental to democracy, the first amendment and any free society. If the federal government interferes with the content of medical journals, they are not just silencing scientists, they are silencing all Americans. Americans lose access to high quality information that can be life-saving, they lose the ability to make informed decisions on what medications to take and they lose the ability to decide if they need to vaccinate themselves and their families against an infectious disease.
If medical journals are silenced; democracy, free speech, health, well-being and our very lives are all on the line.
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