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An Australian and Swedish investigation has found that among the hundreds of COVID-19 research papers that have been withdrawn, a retracted study linking the drug hydroxychloroquine to increased mortality was the most cited paper.Hydroxychloroquine sulphate tablets. (Memories Over Mocha/Shutterstock)With 1,360 citations at the time of data extraction, researchers in the field were still referring to the paper “Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis” long after it was retracted.Authors of the analysis involving the University of Wollongong, Linköping University, and Western Sydney Local Health District wrote (pdf) that “most researchers who...

More than 300 COVID-19-related articles have been retracted — long after they’d done their damage — due to a lack of scientific truthfulness and ethical guidelines, according to Retraction Watch, a website that monitors retractions of science-related articles.A total of 330 COVID-related papers have been retracted thus far.According to Gunnveig Grødeland, a senior researcher at the Institute of Immunology at the University of Oslo, many researchers took ethical shortcuts when writing their essays.“It will, of course, be withdrawn when it is found that ethical guidelines have been breached,” Grødeland quipped to Khrono, an academic news publication.Grødeland states that there were...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration — not his campaign — have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis' presidential bid, NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor's office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program. DeSantis’ office did not return a request seeking comment, but one administration official acknowledged that they...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has leaned on mostly anonymous wealthy allies for their private jets as he tours the country, skirting ethics rules that would force him to publicly report those donations once he formally launches his bid for the White House. "Governor DeSantis, whether he intends to run for president or not, should be clearly and fully disclosing who is providing support to his political efforts," Trevor Potter, a Republican who once led the Federal Election Commission and is the president of the Campaign Legal Center, told the Times. As he tests the waters for a presidential run, DeSantis...

Dr. Pierre Kory, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist, is blaming the nexus between the pharma industry and the government along with corrupt medical journals for deceiving the public about COVID-19 and vaccines, which resulted in “millions of lives lost.” “I always knew pharma was bad. I didn’t understand that they are literally a criminal syndicate, who have been committing crimes for decades. They pay fines, then move on and continue their standard operating business,” Kory said in an April 28 interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. “When it came to government, I wasn’t aware of how corporations...

We’ve seen the left losing their minds over Justice Clarence Thomas going on free trips with a friend he’s knowFn for many years. Not only is there nothing improper about this, there isn’t any indication that it had to do with court decisions or that the friend tried to influence Thomas in any way.Why were the Democrats trying to throw things like this up against the wall on Thomas now? Because they want to do all they can to try to invalidate the Supreme Court, specifically by getting rid of Thomas. As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) explained, this had nothing...

WASHINGTON — President Biden failed to list free vacations at the homes of businesspeople on his annual financial disclosure form this week — drawing a rebuke from ethicists and Republicans amid an ongoing political firestorm over Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ similar non-reporting of free trips from a businessman. Biden enjoyed three beach getaways at the homes of the wealthy and politically connected owners during the past-year reporting period. In two instances, Biden is known not to have paid the owner and in the third case it’s suspected the president did not pay. Ethics experts Walter Shaub, who led the...

Cargo Cult Science Richard Feynman From a Caltech commencement address given in 1974 Also in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a piece of of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas--which was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that...

Much like a Bill of Rights, a principal function of any Code of Ethics is to set limits, to check the inevitable lust for power, the libido dominandi, that human beings tend to demonstrate when they obtain authority and status over others, regardless of the context. Though it may be difficult to believe in the aftermath of COVID, the medical profession does possess a Code of Ethics. The four fundamental concepts of Medical Ethics – its 4 Pillars – are Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, and Justice. Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, and Justice These ethical concepts are thoroughly established in the profession of...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) scolded Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at a hearing Tuesday for what he called the court’s “oblivious” response to the “obvious” ethical conflicts facing its members. He chastised the high court for not adopting the same judicial code of conduct binding every other federal court and warned it had undermined public confidence in the court. “The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards. That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court. The status quo must change,” the majority whip said in his opening...

A Missouri judge issued a temporary block on Monday against an emergency ruling mandating both adults and children complete over a year of therapy and meet various other prerequisites before being eligible for gender-affirming treatments such as surgery, hormones, and puberty blockers.St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo granted a temporary restraining order against the emergency rule created by Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, which will remain in effect until May 15, unless extended. She also scheduled a hearing on May 11 to consider an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit challenging the ruling.The regulation introduced by Bailey stipulates that...

On Thursday, left-wing website ProPublica published a hit piece on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas alleging that his repeated vacationing with a personal friend over the years violated judicial ethics and financial disclosure requirements, prompting Democrats to feign outrage and call for his impeachment. The allegations are weak and will, of course, go nowhere. But it’s curious that this hit piece came out mere days after we learned that Acting New York County Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan, who is overseeing President Donald Trump’s criminal case in New York, donated to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. And not only...

Though Ron DeSantis hasn’t even announced his candidacy for the presidency yet, a Trump-supporting super PAC has filed an ethics complaint against him with the Florida Commission on Ethics. According to the 15-page complaint, the Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., is calling on the commission to investigate DeSantis for allegedly “leveraging his elected office and breaching his associated duties in a coordinated effort to develop his national profile, enrich himself and his political allies, and influence the national electorate.”Though publicly noncommittal, privately sources say DeSantis’ presidential candidacy for the upcoming presidential election is inevitable. As such, the complaint claims that...

Parents were often not truthful about whether their children were vaccinated or needed to quarantine.The pandemic ushered in a wave of difficult ethical choices. In the early days, there were shortages of N-95 masks, ventilators, and certain forms of treatment. How would those scarce resources be rationed? What about "essential" workers who were immunocompromised? Could they be forced to work? And later, there were different ways in which the vaccines were distributed. The elderly and the immunocompromised generally went first. But people with certain comorbidities could jump the line. And in some places, governments administered vaccines based on racial preferences...

**SNIP** The latest situation earning the ire of watchdogs is Rep. Cori Bush's (D-MO) newly announced marriage to a security guard for her campaign, despite her husband, Cortney Merritts, reportedly not holding a St. Louis private security license. Bush's marriage, which was quietly inked in January, is part of a string of alleged ethics issues for Squad members, which include the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and five other Democrats, watchdogs say. **SNIP** Ocasio-Cortez is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, per a December 2022 government press release. While it's...

Aconsortium of political advocacy groups are pushing for an investigation into allegations that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) has had staffers running her personal errands and performing sundry household tasks on the taxpayer dime. As first reported in December by The Daily Beast, Sinema aides are bound by a 37-page memo that lays out a very specific set of demands: the senator’s groceries are to be picked up promptly, her hour-long massages are to be booked weekly, and her internet service at home in D.C. must always be in working order. (If not, an assistant “should call Verizon to schedule a...

Abstract Whole body gestational donation offers an alternative means of gestation for prospective parents who wish to have children but cannot, or prefer not to, gestate. It seems plausible that some people would be prepared to consider donating their whole bodies for gestational purposes just as some people donate parts of their bodies for organ donation. We already know that pregnancies can be successfully carried to term in brain-dead women. There is no obvious medical reason why initiating such pregnancies would not be possible. In this paper, I explore the ethics of whole-body gestational donation. I consider a number of...

A Las Vegas judge and mother of three killed herself a year after leaving her position to avoid a complicated ethics probe that began over what she said was her attempt to save her daughter from prostitution. Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, 53, who stepped down as a Justice of the Peace before a hearing regarding her ethics investigation, was reportedly found dead by suicide Friday, 8NewsNow reported. The outlet did not provide details about how she died. The judge charged that pimps were “targeting the daughters of judges and law enforcement” to recruit them into prostitution. Andress-Tobiasson was being investigated by Nevada’s...

Walter Shaub, ethics chief in the Obama administration, called out President Joe Biden on Tuesday for improperly retaining classified documents. Biden, according to Shaub, demonstrated an "inexcusable neglect of the most basic security protocols." Still, Shaub downplayed the seriousness of Biden's actions by drawing a comparison to former President Donald Trump. "It's nothing like Trump’s deliberate refusal to return classified records demanded by the National Archives," Shaub told Fox News, "but Biden’s own retention of classified records reflects an inexcusable neglect of the most basic security protocols."

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021 could make ethics referrals for lawmakers who ignored congressional subpoenas. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “There’s talk of your committee referring to the house ethics committee some members of the House of Representatives who may have participated in the insurrection in some way and refused to comply with the investigation. Pennsylvania congressman Scott Perry comes to mind. He referred Jeffrey Clark, who is this obscure lawyer, part of this conspiracy to get him, Jeffrey Clark to become head of the...