…And the headlines promise more than they deliver, according to an article at the New York Post.
The article refers to the results of research published in the book by Richard Harris:
(Begin excerpt)
“…For any study to have legitimacy, it must be replicated, yet only half of medical studies celebrated in newspapers hold water under serious follow-up scrutiny — and about two-thirds of the “sexiest” cutting-edge reports, including the discovery of new genes linked to obesity or mental illness, are later “disconfirmed.”
Though erring is a key part of the scientific process, this level of failure slows scientific progress, wastes time and resources and costs taxpayers excesses of $28 billion a year, writes NPR science correspondent Richard Harris in his book “Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions” (Basic Books).
“When you read something, take it with a grain of salt,” Harris tells The Post. “Even the best science can be misleading, and often what you’re reading is not the best science.”
(End excerpt)
It’s not just medicine. All of science research is suffering from the same effect.
The writer does not deny the tendency is always there in the hot competition, and recognizes the shrinking budgets of taxpayer money to dole out for medical studies makes for the present crisis in which “half” of these taxpayer-funded studies (paid for by taxpayer extortion) are not reproducible.
The article describes what is happening, the symptom, but without acknowledging the “disease”. Integrity in medical research has died at the hand of the “administrative state”, unelected fiefdoms of government, less obvious because they are restricted parts of the whole, and because of the cover of mandates by laws outsourcing legislative duties to them.
If the research funds come from the organization with a monopoly of force, there is no constraint on the decisions made by the ones who disperse the funds.
In a free market, the funds would come from parties with an interest in getting results. In government the interests are politically driven careers, and personal pet projects with no personal cost.
This article makes no mention of any comparison between research funded by the private sector with no taint of government priorities, versus government funding.
But besides the difference being intuitively obvious, we have at least one example in the area of stem cell research. The media widely reported on the debate leading up to the decision by George W. Bush on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He eventually decided to allow continuing research with the existing embryonic cell lines that had been funded, but restrict the use of federal funding for any new cell lines. Using new embryonic cell lines means the destruction of an embryo. An embryo is a new human life, a baby.
What was not reported in “Official Media” was that this research into EMBRYONIC stem cell research had already been at full speed for decades, with at the time NOT ONE medical application.
Also not reported at the time was that there were already 72 –seventy-two– medical applications resulting from ADULT stem cell research, already widely in use, funded by PRIVATE money. A few years later there were 150, and finally one study determined that adult stem cell research couple serve for any purported application of the embryonic studies.
Meaning, when you hear that they got some good thing or another from the embryonic stem cell research, remember it easier needless anyway, sending bad money after bad, besides the other.
But the outrageous truth is that so many new lives were needlessly snuffed out while in the first stages of growth, in the name of stuffing them out, and with the bogus cover story of interest in medical advancement and the cure, for which using ADULT cells were already proven to serve much better.
And what a colossal waste of taxpayer-extorted money, including the one BILLION dollars that California’s tax victims had to dish out for it.
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