Johnson & Johnson has sued four doctors who published studies citing links between talc-based personal care products and cancer, escalating an attack on scientific studies that the company alleges are inaccurate.
Suing the doctors for pushing a false narrative is jarring enough, but they’re trying to get the patient’s names used for all studies. What a fun precedent they’re trying to set!!! I cannot foresee in long lasting issues coming from this if they win.
Corporate America sues reality and wins. More at 11.
Not sure how you sue for something you were successfully sued for in court and pounded into the dirt.
But the threats to science come from all sides as everyone wants the dominant source of truth on their side.:(
That’s what worries me, silencing science. If they disagree with the study, do more studies and extended the discussion.
Doubt the motivation here is disagreement with the studies, so much as hoping to be able to sell products regardless of whether they are safe or not.
The courts are unlikely to agree with J&J, but it will nevertheless make scientists (and journals) more wary of publishing if they fear having to defend themselves against lawsuits brought by massive corporations.
The only way this suit ends well for humanity is if at the end the judge has enough common sense to issue a multimillion dollar settlement back to the scientists named to absolutely chill this type of corporate behavior immediately.
It almost certainly won’t happen and we’re probably fucked… But hey, we can dream, right?!
Is there like a ‘how to be a cartoon movie villain 101’ book that these companies are all following?
Maybe I need to start boycotting them.