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hen-published research data of Mandel et al. (1987). is that he remains a bioengineer, and arguments In his editorial, Dr Rennie wrote (quoting OSI, the buttressed by his not being a physician not only ring Office of Scientific Integrity) that "the coincidence of the _ hollow but are self-defeating." arge pharmaceutical company honoraria to Dr Rennie also noted: "It's a nuisance to have people Charles] Bluestone [a co-author of the Mandel study around who oppose the official view. But universities and the less than objective reporting of the efficacy o and journals, which, as has often been said, are pharmaceutical treatments present|s| the appearance __ universities without walls, have to tolerate, and, indeed, of conflict of interest". He explained that approximately lourish in the presence of difficult, awkward, critical USS260,000 in personal honoraria between 1983 and people like Cantekin. It's our job to put up with, and 988 and $3.5 million in grants to the OMRC (the Otitis | encourage, uncomfortable uncollegial characters who Media Research Center, Department of Otolaryngology, ave unusual, unpopular, and original views: that's Pittsburgh) had been paid by pharmaceutica what academic freedom is. The price of sticking with companies. he ‘official line’ is Lysenkoism..." Rennie wrote inter alia: "...a characteristic of whistle- Lysenkoism is the Stalinist Soviet-style manipulation blowers is that, whether by nature or because they fee of the scientific process as a way to reach a orced into it, their actions are anything but collegial. | predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideologica ndeed, whistle-blowing, which is what Cantekin bias, often related to social or political objectives. It is evidently thought he was doing, is the ultimate not without interest that all totalitarian regimes engage uncollegial act, and one we always seem, as if by — in argumentum ad hominem when dealing with dissenters. reflexive action, to punish." Nevertheless, despite the Further, Rennie wrote: “The findings of Mandel et al. and Pittsburgh reports read as i their re-examination by drawn up by the prosecution. The general problem with Cantekin et al., amoxicillin is To an editor, the stranges : still being used as "the drug o aspect is the fact that Cantekin, the orthodox medical system choice" in the treatment o before sending his manuscript | js that it is very susceptible to ff otitis media with effusion and 0 a journal, had circulated it to ° oe . continues to be advertised as Bluestone and the others, and producing and administering effective. hey had withdrawn their unscientific and harmful ; ; names from it, so they knew gg Overcoming an Ineffective very well that this manuscrip mass medication. Medical System existed. Stranger still is the The general problem with the act that though he made very orthodox medical system is ull disclosure to the editor, this that it is very susceptible to remarkable fact is dismissed, not merely as a mitigating | producing and administering unscientific and harmful circumstance, but as having no relevance at all." mass medication. It is also the only system that has no Rennie went on to suggest: "There is, moreover, anad valid philosophy and knowledge of health, sickness and hominem quality to the Pittsburgh response that is healing, and works against rather than with nature. disturbing. Cantekin's bosses at Pittsburgh, Drs Myers Trillions of tonnes of antibiotics are fed to the and Donaldson, in their [1990] letter to JAMA — unsuspecting and deceived public who still believe their commenting on Cantekin's [then still to be published doctors rather than their own eyes. Orthodox medicine article, go out of their way to note that the writers ofthe | even makes more trillions of dollars on its own paper Cantekin presented at the Peer Review Congress _ mistakes, filling hospitals with people made sick by were ‘a bioengineer, an economist, and a lawyer’, the medicine and resulting in iatrogenesis and implication being that such people were incapable o polypharmacy. writing a credible paper. Editors, on the other hand, In Australia, based on my own experience, the make great efforts to judge manuscripts on the quality Medicare system is as close as one can get to perfect as of research rather than the status of the researcher. A ar as availability, cost and choice of practitioners are better argument for ‘blinded’ peer review (blinding the concerned. The problem is that the system is overused reviewer to the name, rank, qualifications, and and misused and is encouraged to excesses by its own institution of the author) would be hard to find. Later greed and ignorance. Any successes of orthodox on, Myers and Donaldson write, ‘Indeed, Dr Cantekin is |= medicine (mostly in surgery) are overshadowed by not a physician’, as if Cantekin had been trying to ealth problems such as pandemics of diabetes, represent himself as such, which he has not done... _ cancers, chronic ill health, cardiovascular diseases, The trouble about bringing a bioengineer to Pittsburgh immunoreactive diseases (allergies), behavioural, and putting him in charge of research in a clinical earning and mental health problems, and horrific and center and promoting him all the way to full professor _ bizarre criminality. The general problem with the orthodox medical system is that it is very susceptible to producing and administering unscientific and harmful NEXUS ¢ 45 mass medication. AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com