Latest news with #medicaljournals
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
RFK Jr. Slams Medical Journals, Floats In-House Publishing Plan
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he may bar government scientists from publishing in top medical journals, accusing publications like The New England Journal of Medicine of being 'corrupt' and beholden to pharmaceutical companies. 'We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they're all corrupt,' Kennedy said on ' The Ultimate Human ' podcast with wellness influencer and biohacker Gary Brecka.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
RFK Jr wants to ban government scientists from publishing in top journals and instead create a MAGA-backed publication
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr wants to ban top government scientists from publishing in 'corrupt' medical journals and force them to present research in MAGA-backed publications instead. During an appearance on the Ultimate Human podcast, Kennedy Jr said: 'We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they're all corrupt.' He claimed the journals are under the control of pharmaceutical companies, according to The Washington Post. The world-renowned journals publish peer-reviewed research and analyze medical findings across the globe. Some of the journals receive millions of visits to their site annually. More than 1 million people read the New England Journal of Medicine in print each week. In past remarks, Kennedy has accused government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, of being 'sock puppets' for pharmaceutical giants. The new government journals would immediately receive credibility because they'd be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said Kennedy. This is despite NIH funding falling more than $3 billion between President Donald Trump's inauguration and March, when compared to the same time last year. 'It is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist,' he said on the podcast episode, which aired shortly after he bypassed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and announced the department would stop recommending the coronavirus vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children. Last week, the White House released a 'MAHA report,' challenging vaccines. Several sections of the report offered misleading representations of findings in scientific papers, the newspaper reported. The scientific community is becoming increasingly concerned that research efforts are not progressing due to the Trump administration's actions. Since Trump's inauguration, Kennedy's agency has dismissed 20,000 federal workers, impacting almost every department division.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
RFK Jr threatens ban on federal scientists publishing in top journals
Robert F Kennedy Jr has threatened to ban government scientists from publishing in the world's leading medical journals, which he branded 'corrupt', and to instead create alternative publications run by the state. 'We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Jama and those other journals, because they're all corrupt,' the US health secretary said on the Ultimate Human podcast. He accused the publications of being controlled by pharmaceutical companies. Instead, Kennedy outlined plans to launch government-run journals that would become 'the preeminent journals' because National Institutes of Health funding would anoint researchers 'as a good, legitimate scientist'. The three publications Kennedy targeted are among the most influential medical journals globally, established in the 19th century and now central to disseminating peer-reviewed medical research worldwide. The Lancet and Jama each report more than 30m annual website visits, while the New England Journal of Medicine claims more than 1 million weekly readers. Kennedy has similarly accused the agencies he now oversees – including the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – as 'sock puppets' for the pharmaceutical industry. The second Trump administration has taken an axe to scientific research, with NIH funding cut by more than $3bn since the year before. Kennedy has also purged an estimated 20,000 health department staff from the government. Adam Gaffney, a public health researcher at Harvard Medical School, told the Washington Post: 'Banning NIH-funded researchers from publishing in leading medical journals and requiring them to publish only in journals that carry the RFK Jr seal of approval would delegitimize taxpayer-funded research.' The health secretary's comments followed the release of a White House report last week that challenged medical consensus on vaccines and suggested pharmaceutical influence has prevented proper study of chronic disease causes in children. Kennedy justified his position by citing decade-old concerns from journal editors themselves about pharmaceutical influence, including former New England Journal of Medicine chief Marcia Angell's 2009 warning that 'it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published' due to financial ties with pharmaceutical companies. The funding cuts and personnel changes have prompted some US scientists to consider relocating abroad, with countries including France, Germany, Spain and China actively recruiting American researchers.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
RFK Jr. says he may bar scientists from publishing in top medical journals
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he could bar government scientists from publishing in the world's leading medical journals, instead proposing the creation of 'in-house' publications by his agency — the latest in the Trump administration's attacks on scientific institutions. 'We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA [published by the American Medical Association] and those other journals, because they're all corrupt,' Kennedy said during an appearance on the 'Ultimate Human' podcast. He also described the journals as being under the control of pharmaceutical companies.
Forbes
07-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
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.
