Theoretical and evolutionary biologist Carl Bergstrom considers the journal to be part of an ongoing effort to question established scientific consensus. “If we can create an illusion that there is no superiority in opinion that vaccines and masks are effective ways to control the pandemic, we can undermine the concept of scientific consensus. The agenda will move forward,” he said. says. Peer-reviewed papers can provide cover to politicians who want to make certain decisions, he says.
When contacted by phone Thursday, Kruldorf said Batacharya and McCurry were approached to be on the editorial board before President Trump made the appointment. “Now they’re not active members of the board,” he said. (The Journal website cites Bhatacharya and McCurry as “on vacation.”) He added that there is “no connection” between the Journal and the Trump administration.
Kulldorff told Wired the journal will be a venue for open discourse and academic freedom. “I think it’s important that scientists can publish what they think is important science, and that should be open to discussion rather than preventing people from publishing,” says Kulldorff.
Kulldorff and Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist at UC Irvine. Supporters of Lab Leak Theory The origins of Covid are named as editors of the journal. Scott Atlas, who was tapped by Trump to serve on the White House Coronavirus Task Force in 2020, has also been appointed as a member of the editorial board. Created by Atlas, a training radiologist False claims That mask won’t work to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In January, Noymer wrote an OP-ED in favor of Bhattacharya’s nomination for NIH administrators. In it, he praised Bhatacharya for his open mind to various perspectives. That op-ed It has been published With RealClearPolitics.
Angela Rasmussen, an American virologist and research scientist at the University of Saskatchewan, says she is worried that she can use the journal to support and justify pseudo-scientific and anti-public health views. “I don’t think this will give them credibility to real scientists. But the public may not know the difference between the Academy of Public Health magazines and the New England Journal of Medicine,” she says. .
Taylor Dotson, a professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, who studies the intersection of science and politics, said the journal could be a repository of evidence for Bolster’s arguments supported by people in the administration. “There are legitimate concerns.” If confirmed, the boss of Batacharya and McCurry could be Trump’s candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Autism and its AIDS are not caused by the HIV virus.
Dotson warns there is a risk that the existence of journals closely aligned with certain political views could deepen the politicization of science. “The worst case scenario is to start getting magazines for people like populists and the anti-establishment, and magazines for people reading NPR and the New York Times.”
