accountability
14 stories tagged "accountability"
Three Sydney Space-Physics Papers Outlasted a 2023 Fabrication Finding Against Their First Author
A 2023 Sydney inquiry found Joachim Schmidt fabricated a figure in an unpublished manuscript. Journals now say figures in three of his published papers were likely fabricated too, and those retractions began with an anonymous complaint to the publisher in 2024.
InvestigationsFrom 'Vaccine Hesitancy' to 'Trust': Five Years of NIH Insiders Grading Vaccine-Injury Research by Public Reaction
In 2021 Francis Collins warned that a paper on nerve symptoms after COVID vaccination would feed 'vaccine hesitancy.' This month the NIH hospital board's chair warned the new clinic's findings would be dismissed either way. Of decided federal COVID countermeasure claims, 98.4 percent were denied.
InvestigationsOven Gloves Bought From a Top Online Retailer Tested 89 Percent Asbestos
A private citizen asked two Italian mineralogists whether a cheap pair of heat-resistant gloves labeled Made in China was asbestos. The lab answered 89 percent chrysotile by weight, and the listing never said so.
InvestigationsThe Byline Broker Signed Its Sales Pitch With a London Oncologist's Name
Springer Journals Online sold co-author slots on papers it said were nearly through review at Elsevier, Wiley and Springer Nature, and signed the pitch with a cancer researcher's name. Its website is gone. The manuscripts have not been publicly identified.
InvestigationsPhysics of Fluids Sent a Postdoc's Name to the Authors Whose Algebra He Flagged
AIP Publishing tells its editors to protect the anonymity of anyone raising a concern. Physics of Fluids sent a postdoc's name, institution and rank to the authors he challenged, and 8 referees later found nothing to defend in their paper.
InvestigationsA Warehouse Stored Infant Formula Among 26 Rodents. After 32 Inspections, No One Was Charged.
The FDA found infant formula stored among 26 rodents at a Minneapolis warehouse the state had inspected 26 times since 2013. The remedy was a cleanup order and no charges, the same month the Justice Department let Abbott pay nearly $385 million and close its own formula criminal case with no one cha
InvestigationsTwo Words Open Fauci's Pandemic Diary: 'GAME ON!!!'
Anthony Fauci's private diary greets the pandemic with 'GAME ON!!!' and, in the same January 2020 entry, records that the first infection traced to early December and that the Wuhan market was 'the amplifier,' not the source.
InvestigationsFauci's Top Adviser Admitted to Hiding COVID Emails and Taking Wine for a Natural-Origins Commentary
David Morens pleaded guilty to conspiring to run NIH business through Gmail to dodge FOIA, and to taking wine as an illegal gratuity tied to a commentary declaring COVID had natural origins. Fauci was not charged.
InvestigationsMonths Before Officials Told Pregnant Women the COVID Shot Was Safe, Fauci Privately Flagged a Theoretical First-Trimester Miscarriage Risk
Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul pulled the first messages off Fauci's government iPhone: a January 2021 chain in which he privately flagged a theoretical first-trimester miscarriage risk, months before official guidance told pregnant women the shot carried no such concern.
InvestigationsTwo Scientists Nominated Fauci for Cash Prizes. Then His Agency Funded Them by the Hundreds of Millions.
The emails Rand Paul released July 24 show Fauci's taxpayer-funded staff drafting his award nominations, and two scientists who submitted them going on to draw large NIAID grants.
InvestigationsA Gene-Editing Trial Killed a Six-Year-Old. The Only Official Penalty Was a $3,500 Fine.
Xinhua Hospital paid about 24,000 yuan in September 2025. The death it was fined over stayed out of the medical literature for another ten months, and out of the Nature paper entirely.
InvestigationsThe Crisis Was Unexpected. The Org Chart Wasn't.
Internal NIH correspondence and the public record both point to a pandemic-response architecture, and the people to run it, assembled years before Covid arrived.
InvestigationsBecerra Got the Fauci Whistleblower File. The HHS Inspector General Did Not.
A whistleblower told the Director of National Intelligence in August 2021 that Anthony Fauci lied to Congress about gain-of-function funding. The file was routed to Xavier Becerra, Fauci's cabinet boss, instead of the independent HHS Inspector General. The paper trail is now public.
InvestigationsVietnam's New Integrity Rule Arrives 251 Retractions Late
Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology issued a research-integrity framework with permanent bans on May 25, 2026. The Retraction Watch database already lists 251 retractions carrying Vietnamese affiliations.