Research Institutes Enjoy the Fruits of Willful Ignorance
While in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, spring 2022, three top Canadian science institutions were put to the test. Under their watch, evidence surfaced that they had supported fraudulent research, concocted to bolster vaccine uptake and scapegoat a segment of the population for vaccine failure. During this period, politics dominated the 'follow the science' narrative and large financial incentives were tied to the successful uptake of the new genetic vaccines.
How did these institutions respond? How did they navigate their conflicts of interest? Did financial interests trump ethical concerns when the two were at odds? You be the judge.
This supplementary guide provides the letter and email correspondences apprising three institutions of a serious act of research misconduct, together with their feeble replies. The importance of this particular case of scientific fraud, which cuts to the core of the government's pandemic response, is discussed in Fisman's Fraud: The Rise of Canadian Hate Science.