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They say bugger all, except that Gotzsche was 'behaving badly'. The key bit seems to me to be: All our staff, and our members, have the right to do their work without harassment and personal attacks. Sounds familiar. Any criticism of standard of science is a personal attack it seems these...

It is about a long-term pattern of behaviour that we say is totally, and utterly, at variance with the principles and governance of the Cochrane Collaboration. This is about integrity, accountability and leadership. Yes, well, being critical is a pattern of behaviour that tends to go with...

From the planet zog, I suspect. She must like the way things are.

According to Wikipedia not this.

I actually think that statisticians should be expected to know, and in that regard I agree with @Lucibee. I should be expected to know enough about stats to judge whether a statistician is giving properly informed advice. I have to know enough about the other person's subject to make sure thing...

It is a statistician's job to be aware of the concept of bias and its dynamics but I don't think it is their job to know the realities of how bias arises in specific situations - because that is the job of the scientists doing the experiment. Having said that one can reasonably expect...

Mm. I don't think this usage of right and duty has to do with legal constructs. I think it is an older ethical idea, is it not? Those who have power or resources have an ethical obligation to use them well. That turns up in rules of accountability within organisations but I don't think it is a...

I have been trying to work out what he meant (Einstein). Presumably he meant that you must share all your results. Coming from Sharpe that is serious irony.

I agree these are key questions. The problem is that people trained in statistics have no particular reason to understand the more basic problems of trial design that arise from sources of bias - human nature. You cannot use numbers to assess the likelihood of bias. The jobs you want done are...

My impression is maybe not. The can of worms being opened seems to be about conflict of interest regardless of type of treatment. And the psychiatrists are getting quite a bit of stick. I don't know the details of HPV but Jefferson says nobody does except the company. Hilda Bastian also says...

It's an unholy mess. For the board not to have responded to the criticism of the mental health section they must be incompetent. We all need to wake up and see that the imprimatur of Cochrane is no more authority than anything else. You have to judge for yourself.

I am not sure that there is so much a crisis as a silent slipping into a swamp of mediocrity. The crisis may be coming now - in the sense of confronting just how low things have sunk. Cochrane had a unique reputation as honest broker, but it is pretty clear that this is now defunct. I had been...

This is the sort of nonsensical statement that shows there is no real thought behind this sort of project. It is a bit like saying pain is a key symptoms so not having pain is an important part of the treatment. No, it was what the treatment is supposed to achieve. And the treatment seems to be...

Pity that Chalmers was dismissive when I suggested it was odd that the recent exercise for ME review draft was full of flaws despite being written by the guy who writes these articles with Chalmers about how easy it is to spot bad science. He was particularly affronted that I raised conflict of...

What a load of woo-woo. I am wondering who this Trisha Greenhalgh lady is who has cropped up in relation to Cochrane. Professor of General Practice it seems, at QMUL. With views like this around it is not surprising Cochrane is going down the tube.

This is definitely a big problem but may need a pinch of salt. UCL pestered me for about three years for the results of a trial I had told them had never been started and would not be. I am sure it has gone down as an unreported trial.

Yes, it is a pity that when I wrote back to Fiona Watt saying that there was some concern within Cochrane that all was not well I was not in a position to say that the whole thing is in a state of civil war about exactly this sort of drop in standards.

This looks to be the typical mess where one has to be careful trying to sort good guys from bad guys. I am not sure anyone comes out well. My impression is that Gotzsche may well have a bee in his bonnet about various things that are unhelpful, but on the other hand his critique of the executive...

I think Sharpe is right on this one. He said it was not becoming or it was unbecoming of an MP. That means that it is inappropriate behaviour for an MP with their public position. It has nothing to do with gender. Where he was wrong was to suggest that it might be unbecoming of anyone to point...

Sharpe never disappoints because he constantly reveals how disingenuous he is. How can authors of studies provide expert advice to independent quality assessors? Presumably the advice was on how to notice the good bits of the studies and not the bad bits. It is a bit like a job applicant giving...