[feoren]

> You can call it "evil" if you want

It was a concerted and intentional effort to fake data and falsify research into a pervasive deadly disease, specifically in order to hoard funds going to research they knew was, if not a dead end, at least not nearly as promising as they were claiming, preventing those funds from going to other research groups that might actually make progress, essentially stealing donations from a charity, and using their power and clout to attack the reputations of anyone who challenged them. They directly and knowingly added some X years to how long it will take to cure this disease, with X being at least 2 and possibly as much as 10. When Alzheimer's is finally cured, add up all the people who suffered and died from it in the X years before that point, and this research team is directly and knowingly responsible for all of that suffering. Yes, I think I will call it absolutely fucking evil.

[robwwilliams]

Yes, I share some of your concerns about groupthink and research cliques. The best and balanced critique is Karl Herrup’s book at MIT Press: “How Not To Study a Disease”.

Your comment is over the top with respect to NIH-funded researchers doing Alzheimer’s research. The emotion would be entirely appropriate if directed at RJ Reynolds Inc. and other cigarette companies or Purdue Pharma. Those are evil companies that many governments have tolerated killing for profit—Purdue Pharma and the OxyContin disaster alone about 500,000 Americans over 20 years; and US tobacco companies contribute to about as many excess deaths per year.

The systematic image manipulation by a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Sylvain Lesné, was egregious and worthy of jail time but he was a truly exceptional case and polluted 20 or more papers that did distract the entire field. You can read all about it here.

PMID: 35862524 Piller C. Blots on a field? Science. 2022 377:358-363. doi: 10.1126/science.add9993

[matthewdgreen]

Again, I urge you to read this article and stop promoting conspiracy nonsense. I take this very personally because my mom has this disease, and people who clearly don't understand what they're talking about fuming about conspiracies really doesn't help anyone, and probably hurts them immeasurably. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/in-defense-of-the-amyloid-h...