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Tian Wen's avatar

Thank you Roger for being methodical in your coverage of the Proximal Origins paper.

I appreciate how you’re working on this step by step — first by laying out, with the help of independent journalists, that the authors’ public writings were totally at odds with their private communications. Now, by advocating for a specific remedial action, i.e. the retraction of the paper.

IMO the ultimate goal is much larger (to restore the integrity of civic institutions and scientific organizations), but tackling issues incrementally is the right approach.

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Mark Silbert's avatar

This piece by Alex Gutentag published on PUBLIC today nails it: https://public.substack.com/p/anthony-fauci-behind-covid-origins

Her concluding paragraphs: "As the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic continues to investigate Covid’s origins and the Covid response, it is essential that we recognize the lessons of the “Proximal Origin” debacle. What the authors’ Slack messages have exposed more than anything else is that peer-reviewed science is not sacred and that scientists are not neutral arbiters of truth.

Today, the scientific process and scientific institutions are dominated by warped financial incentives, military contracts, and political motives. When the next medical and scientific crisis inevitably arrives, it is incumbent on us all to remember that “scientific consensus” is not always determined by discovery and open debate, but often by the demands of dishonest and self-interested “higher ups.” "

This applies to the Climate Change science community in spades. The notion that it can fix itself from within is naive.

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