Updated 2/2/13: to add: the author of the attack on Gorski was Jake Crosby, then an undergraduate student. Mr. Crosby has recently increased his attacks on folk, so I wanted to note it here.
David H. Gorski M.D., Ph.D., FACS is a researcher-surgeon who is working on cures for breast cancer. On his own time, he is also a leading and prolific science blogger, publishing his blog Respectful Insolence (where he started pseudonymously, as Orac) and as the managing editor of the group blog Science-Based Medicine.
On June 14, Gorski published In which Dr. Gorski once again finds himself a target of the “pharma shill” gambit at Science-Based Medicine. It is a long and meaty piece, but the gist is a discussion of conflicts of interest in medicine; Dr. Gorski's research relative to a particular drug produced by a pharmaceutical company; and an explanation of real conflicts of interest versus phantom conflicts of interest.
The blog Age of Autism (AoA) is a publication of the anti-vaccination, anti-science organization Generation Rescue and advertises itself as "the daily web newspaper of the autism epidemic". Yesterday, AoA published a long, ad-hominem attack on Dr. Gorski's ethics, based on hazy and fanciful associations and a complete misunderstanding of scientific research.
In the comments (1, 2, 3), readers were provided with the email addresses of Dr. Gorski's superiors and were urged to send emails to those people, urging them to "shut down" Dr. Gorski's online publications, and possibly to suggest that Dr. Gorski should be disciplined or fired by his employer.
This is contemptible.
In defense of Dr. Gorski, I used those same email addresses to send the following to the Board of Governors of the university where Dr. Gorski works.
Dear Chairman Bernstein, Vice Chair Abbot, and esteemed members of the Board of Governors of Wayne State University,
I am writing in regards to the community or public service achievements of David H. Gorski M.D., Ph.D., FACS.
I am not a scientist, but an educator of children under the age of 12.
I do not know Dr. Gorski personally, but I have been reading his online publications on science, pseudoscience, critical thinking, and medicine for over five years. I regard his online writings, especially those at Science-Based Medicine (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/) as a tremendous public service not only to me, a lay reader, but to all Americans, especially in regard to cancer treatments and how the science of cancer treatment is evolving, and in critical thinking about science reporting.
Dr. Gorski is the managing editor of the internet publication Science-Based Medicine; in his biographical page there (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?page_id=224) he makes clear his connection to Wayne State University; announces any potential conflicts of interest; makes clear that his opinions
are most definitely not intended to represent the opinions or positions of Wayne State University School of Medicine, his department, or the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and should never, ever be construed as such.
I have learned that an extreme anti-vaccination group, Generation Rescue, today published an article by an undergraduate student attacking Dr. Gorski's integrity. In particular, the post alleged that Dr. Gorski has "undisclosed financial ties to the vaccine industry." The online publication is called Age of Autism. In the comments section, a person I believe to be Age of Autism's managing editor urged readers to write to you and to Dr. Gorski's department chair, with the goal of "shutting down" Dr. Gorski's public service activities.
Instead, I hope you will commend Dr. Gorski for his extracurricular, public service work in educating the public on pseudoscience and fake cancer "cures".
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Here are the comments posted at Age of Autism. I also have screenshots.
Who is this guy's dept. chair at Wayne State? I wonder if he reads his blog, or better yet, will read THIS. I would think that Wayne State would not appreciate the lines he steps over on a regular basis and would shut him down.
Posted by: kim | June 21, 2010 at 08:16 AM
http://bog.wayne.edu/members/
This is the Wayne State Board of Governors, names and contact info.
Posted by: sos | June 21, 2010 at 09:48 AM
Kim Wombles at Countering Age of Autism is collating blog responses in defense of Dr. Gorski.Use sos's links to email the board of the school ASAP. from their website: The Wayne State University Board of Governors and 2 of its standing committees will meet on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 in Rooms BC at McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 W. Ferry Mall, Detroit, Michigan 48202. The Standing Committees will begin at 10:00 a.m., and the Board meeting at 3:00 p.m.
Posted by: kim | June 21, 2010 at 10:02 AM
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