STAT+: ‘Corrupt’ medical journals have to change, RFK Jr. says, or the NIH will publish in-house
The criticism of The Lancet, NEJM and JAMA is not new, but the health secretary may use his position to influence research that journals publish.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling prestigious medical journals “corrupt,” today suggested that government scientists may shortly be foreclosed from publishing their work in those journals.
On the Ultimate Human Podcast with Gary Brecka, Kennedy said, “We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they’re all corrupt.” The journals, he said, publish studies that are funded by the pharmaceutical industry. As a substitute for them, he continued, the NIH will establish medical journals for its various institutes and centers — unless current journals change “radically.”
The belief that journals have negatively manipulated the scientific record is not a new position for Kennedy, but the latest comments signal that he may use his position as the nation’s top health official to influence research that journals publish.
