It sometimes feels like researchers are striving to give people reasons to doubt science in the age of COVID. In the most recent example, the DisInformation Chronicle discovered that, in one of the most widely read science journal articles of 2020, researchers wrote that it was a “conspiracy theory” to claim that the COVID-19 pandemic could have started from a lab accident in China. However, they violated publishing ethics by not disclosing that the article had been secretly edited by two scientists whose lab research involves genetically engineering coronaviruses.
The commentary titled, “No credible evidence supporting claims of the laboratory engineering of SARS-CoV-2“ appeared in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections, which is published by Taylor and Francis. The authors also appear to have bypassed the normal process of peer review, according to emails made public by U.S. Right to Know.