The disinformation playbook: how industry manipulates the science-policy process—and how to restore scientific integrity

Reed, Genna; Hendlin, Yogi Hale; Desikan, Anita; MacKinney, Taryn; Berman, Emily; Goldman, Gretchen

doi:10.1057/s41271-021-00318-6

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Requiring RCTs to show vitamin D (a nutrient) deficiency in the etiology of vulnerability to COVID-19 is challenging. Also, drug companies control such RCTs [116,117]: The lack of accepted proof for treatment effect is assumed to mean that the etiology is absent (which is not the case). However, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.…”

Section: The (Il)logical Problem With Rcts' Being the "Gold Standard"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meanwhile, governments, regulators, and health authorities, in conjunction with the mass media and social media platforms, blocked information related to effective early therapies such as vitamin D, ivermectin, and melatonin by using the standard pharmaceutical disinformation playbook [116,117,185]. Over the past two years, government authorities and global health agencies have intimidated academics, physicians, and health care workers, directly via threats and through the mass media, not only preventing the dissemination of information but also penalizing them for prescribing highly cost-effective repurposed agents that save lives (see https://covid19criticalcare.com/).…”

Section: Consequences Of Bias and Autocratic Suppression Of Critical ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Logical Analysis of Response of Health Officials’ Worldwide, to Cost-Effective Early Remedies for COVID19

Wimalawansa¹,

Polonowita²

2022

Preprint

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With the advent of COVID19, the attitude of health authorities around the world, led mainly by the West, demanded a level of proof as evidence for cheap, non-patented remedies while promoting expensive, patented, and untested remedies by using emergency use authorization and special provisions afforded to the status of a pandemic emergency. Western science has neither a tested nor a valid historical basis of a logical system that informs to authenticate scientific practices. Here we use a logical heuristic derived from ancient Buddhist logic, which is consistent with the conduct of modern science. We applied the heuristic to show that enough evidence was available for using cost-effective early therapies such as vitamin D supplementation as a public health measure during the first half of 2020. Strong supporting evidence has since accumulated. Apart from political and financial decisions incompatible with science and other conflicts of interest, a critical barrier to evaluating and approving early therapies appears to be the fallacy that the randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the superior proof method in medical hypotheses, including those for nutrients. Logically, no reason exists why properly designed retrospective, ecological, and naturalistic studies with adequate sample sizes and applied appropriate statistical methods would not be as valid as RCTs, especially when elucidating a causative factor instead of treatment. That assertion is particularly true for nutrient deficiencies, interventions, and other cost-effective therapies. Leading health authorities’ failure or refusal to consider other study types (because of either poor logic or vested interest) probably contributed to the spread of misinformation, symptomatic disease, complications, and deaths from COVID19. Partial immunity derived from vaccines and the later development of more contagious variants—and thus a sense of acceptance that SARS-CoV-2 had progressed from a pandemic to an endemic—shows the hollowness of the initial promotions and mandates of vaccines as a cure. Adequate knowledge was available in 2020 to advise that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to mutate, with variants emerging a few times per year, making the vaccine less effective. Emerging evidence confirms that natural immunity better protects against new variants than vaccination against the spike protein. Had vitamin D been adopted as part of the public health measure through a broader supplementation program in 2020 or even today (through sun exposure or as a prophylactic or adjunct therapy early on), the viral spread and symptomatic disease may have been suppressed, with minimal lockdowns and quarantine, and economic harm. The pandemic could have been halted with a significantly reduced need for hospitalization, complications, and deaths, potentially saving millions of lives.

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Section: The (Il)logical Problem With Rcts' Being the "Gold Standard"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Consequences Of Bias and Autocratic Suppression Of Critical ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Logical Analysis of Response of Health Officials’ Worldwide, to Cost-Effective Early Remedies for COVID19

Wimalawansa¹,

Polonowita²

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Organized disinformation campaigns and public denials of scientifically-established facts are not new. Such phenomena are common when science contradicts religious beliefs (68,69) or conflicts with private commercial interests (70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75). However, they have taken on a new dimension during the Covid-19 crisis.…”

Section: Liberal Governance Tends To Instrumentalize or Delegitimize ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Tragedy of Liberal Democratic Governance in the Face of Global Threats

Muraille

Naccache

Pierre

2022

Front. Public Health

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In hindsight, the early response of liberal governments to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was chaotic and generally inefficient. Though one might be tempted to attribute these failures to the incompetence of certain political decision-makers, we propose another explanation. Global threats require a coordinated international response, which is only possible if the threat is perceived in the same way by all, and if government priorities are similar. The effectiveness of the response also relies on massive adhesion of citizens to the measures imposed, which in turn requires trust in government. Our hypothesis is that certain fundamental features of liberalism complicate such global and collective responses: neutrality of the state and primacy of the individual over collective society. Liberalism considers that institutions and public policy must not be designed to favor any specific conception of the common good. That which is best for all is usually determined by a “competition of opinions,” which frequently leads to scientific expertise being considered as only one opinion among many. Liberalism also imposes strict respect for individual freedoms and private interests and tends to reject any form of collectivism or dictate imposed by the common good. In order to solve these structural problems and improve society's management of global threats, we make several proposals, such as the introduction of a minimal and consensual definition of the common good and the promotion of a health policy guided by One Health-like concepts. Overall, our analysis suggests that because political ideologies provide their own definitions of the common good and the place of scientific knowledge in the governance process and can thus affect the response to global threats, they should be urgently taken into consideration by public health experts.

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“…Attacking the science is a preemptive strike obviating the need to attack the policy that stems from it. Reed et al's [18] analysis of different industry disinformation tactics which disrupt the scientific process is insightful . From faking and manufacturing science, to harassing and manipulating scientists and policymakers, industry intervention in science is ubiquitous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobilizing COVID-19 level public health interventions for climate breakdown is necessary

Hendlin

Visser²

2022

The Journal of Climate Change and Health

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The disinformation playbook: how industry manipulates the science-policy process—and how to restore scientific integrity

Cited by 22 publications

References 14 publications

Logical Analysis of Response of Health Officials’ Worldwide, to Cost-Effective Early Remedies for COVID19

Logical Analysis of Response of Health Officials’ Worldwide, to Cost-Effective Early Remedies for COVID19

The Tragedy of Liberal Democratic Governance in the Face of Global Threats

Mobilizing COVID-19 level public health interventions for climate breakdown is necessary

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