In the rarefied world of scientific publishing, few names strike quite the same chord as The Lancet. Across the globe, the journal is associated with scientific rigour and professional prestige. In the field of science itself, it is a gilded …
The man who launched the vaccine wars
On a dull morning, 25 years ago, scores of journalists and TV crews gathered at The Royal Free hospital in north London. The occasion was a press conference for a five-page, 4,000-word “paper” in The Lancet medical journal. Thousands of …
Is the media still stifling the lab-leak theory?
Last autumn, American intelligence agencies reported to the White House that they remain divided on whether the pandemic started naturally or was the result of a lab accident. “All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an …
We’ve forgotten how to die
Why do some people take a peep at the last few pages of a novel first? Yes, we know it’s cheating. But forget whether a cheeky glance at the ending constitutes a great crime against reading — why do many …
It’s time to end mandatory isolation
Since they were first introduced, lateral flow tests have been controversial: some scientists have suggested that they miss a large number of cases. Others warned that they will pick up a large number of otherwise undetected infections, and so reduce …