All industries, and those companies or entities with a vested interest in a project, product, or outcome, should be banned from financing scientific research or studies which could be used by policy makers in decision making. The bedrock of scientific inquiry is autonomy and for too many years, we have seen entities such as Big Tobacco, Big Sugar, and Big Pharma, use studies done by researchers and scientists with conflicts of interest, due to funding or allegiances, to make false claims about the safety or usefulness of their product.
This should include a ban on participation by researchers or scientist with a direct and tangible vested interest; such as stock ownership in the company who would benefit by themselves, their immediate family, or any trusts or group to which they belong, or previous employment by said entity or it’s direct subsidiaries, including lobbying firms.
Any conflicts, or vested interests, however negligible, must be fully disclosed in bold print in the header of the document rather than the footnote area. A criminal penalty should be imposed on anyone who publishes a paper and does NOT disclose vested or conflicts of interests. Any paper with such a conflict cannot be used as the sole evidentiary document in any official policy making decisions.
1 Like