See also Medscape: Cochrane Board Expels Critic of Group’s HPV Vaccine Review
The Cochrane Collaboration (over thirty thousand professional scientists around the world) have maintained their distance from industrial funding and therefore have provided a level of independence and honesty which can rarely be found in research today. In this way, Cochrane was pretty much the last bastion of research integrity on the planet. But it was recently purchased by Bill Gates.
Soon afterwards, Dr. Peter Goetzsche (one of the founders of the organization), was “expelled” from membership. Four other board members resigned in a show of support. Dr. Goetzsche knows why he has been expelled. He calls the situation a moral governance crisis.
As most people know, much of my work is not very favourable to the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Because of this Cochrane has faced pressure, criticism and complaints. My expulsion is one of the results of these campaigns. What is at stake is the ability of producing credible and trustworthy medical evidence that our society values and needs.” – Peter C Gøtzsche, Professor, Director, MD, DrMedSci, MSc Nordic Cochrane Centre, in a letter dated September 14, 2018.
Dr. Goetzsche just co-authored a paper in response to one of the first new tricks published by Cochrane, which praised the HPV vaccine. It is titled, “The Cochrane HPV vaccine review was incomplete and ignored important evidence of bias” and is well worth a read (Lars Jørgensen, Peter C Gøtzsche, Tom Jefferson – in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 2018).
He has also become quite outspoken about his many concerns about industry’s stranglehold over science – and the published results versus the reality.