DBKP COMMENTARY/OPINION
Original article published at DBKP: The Lancet Investigates Fraudulent Chinese Science: Pot, Kettle Commentary Time
Lancet Laughs
Dr. Horton Hears a Chinese Who
The BBC reports that the famed British Medical Journal, (Britain has only one of note, so fame may have have not been difficult to obtain) The Lancet has requested the Chinese government crack down on falsified scientific research.
This is somewhat funny.
But first a little background. China is the second-largest publisher of research papers after the USA. China has made a concerted effort to become the most scientifically-oriented nation on earth, much like the USSR attempted.
And failed.
The USSR failed because no one was allowed to discuss research. The Chinese realized, that on this point, the Russians were fools and directed their scientists to create a culture of publication like one sees in the USA, Canada, Japan, India, Germany, and, frankly, few other countries.
There's just one problem: the Chinese periodicals are filled with fraudulent studies. All bullshit. All paid for by the government as if print were cash.
Not like the Western press eh???
Richard Horton, editor in chief of the Lancet, speaking in Lancet urges China to tackle scientific fraud:
"When you make prestigious jobs and large amounts of money closely tied to publication, that creates conditions for fraud."
Last December, two teams of researchers at Jinggangshan University in central China were found to have falsified 70 papers published in 2007.
"It's very tricky. The problem has existed for a long time," says Dr Lu Yiyi, Associate Fellow at Chatham House's China programme.
She believes universities need to teach about the importance of honesty but that the government will have a very difficult job stamping out fraud.
"There weren't strict rules established in the first place so a large number of people went though the system and got their professorship.
"If you apply stricter rules retroactively then their past work would be vulnerable to criticism," said Dr Lu.
China wants to become a research superpower and its influence is booming economically and scientifically. Dr Horton said it is vital China's government takes action.
How nice of Dr Horton to be concerned about Chinese research. Personally, we here at DBKP would just prefer the Chinese to be concentrating more on human rights and a bit less on destroying their imaginary enemies, of which there are no end.
But shouldn't Dr Horton be a bit worried about The Lancet? Let us review its recent publication history of interesting scientific frauds.
"Research scandal revealed: When in February 1998 13 doctors, led by former gut surgeon Andrew Wakefield, from London's Royal Free hospital, published research, in the Lancet medical journal, linking MMR with autism, it triggered a slump in immunization levels and led to outbreaks of infectious disease. But the key finding was a sham: laundering anonymized allegations by claimants in a lawsuit against vaccine makers - which Wakefield had been paid huge sums to back. --The Sunday Times, February 22 2004 "
Ahh. That little bit of nonsense caused the death of thousands of infants in Britain, North America, and Africa. It gave African witch doctors, Christian cults, and Muslim Imams an excuse to wave bones and rattles instead of properly vaccinating infants and children.
The results: uncounted deaths, spontaneous abortions, deformities, deafness, and polio. The Lancet played the story for years.
Then, there was the following bit of idiotic American hatred--no stranger to The Lancet readers:
From Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000:
A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.
The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.
It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.
The surveyors said they found a steady increase in mortality since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence as reported by the U.S. military, the news media and civilian groups. In the year ending in June, the team calculated Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly four times what it was the year before the war.
Of the total 655,000 estimated "excess deaths," 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.
So what is the real death toll? The Iraqi government and independent sources say it is a stretch to get to 33,000--including all MIA military, many of whom are presumed to have left to take up Jihad and kill a few Shia, Americans, Nato forces and Kurds because that is what uber-religious Muslims like to do when they have some time on their hands.
This figure has been confirmed hundreds of times. But, The Lancet would rather take the word of two researchers that relied upon "models" to get the figure.
Yes.
8% of the total Iraqi population was killed in their computer. And all we can find are Saddam's mass graves.
And speaking of models, there's Health and Climate Change. The reader can see for himself how The Lancet spends its medical capital--and credibility--on the subject of climate change.
The Lancet has published so many global warming stories that have not come true that one would think it a fiction magazine. There is not a disaster that it has not attributed to global warming in recent years--other than American misbehavior.
Well before 2002 The Lancet started publishing articles that predicted the spread of diseases throughout the world; malaria and Dengue fever are particularly favored, but any would do. Malnutrition, dehydration, famine, floods, cold, snow, ice ages, and Americans.
It hardly mattered.
Anthropogenic Global Warming was driving The Lancet's editors mad. They must have all graduated from the sterling East Anglia University. Not exactly Cambridge or MIT, eh?
All of these projections, long since proven to be indefinitely deferred, were moronic.
Or as the Chinese would say, bullshit.
The Lancet is very much in the same class as the Chinese scientists who make up studies to confirm what the minders of the purse strings want to hear.
It, like Scientific American, Nature, etc., is a disgrace.
For it to take issue with fraudulent Chinese science, while vomiting its sophomoric bilge is laughable.
NOTE: The Lancet might look for guidance in Luke 4:23: "Physician, heal thyself".
by Pat
images: Daily Radar
other sources:
http://nygoe.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/global-warming-hoax-enabler-the-lancet/
http://image.thelancet.com/extras/01art11175web.pdf
