In his 1994 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the Hungarian born chemist George Andrew Olah acknowledged an aspect of science that rarely is noted in popular discussions:
“[One] way of dealing with errors is to have friends who are willing to spend the time necessary to carry out a critical examination of the experimental design beforehand and the results after the experiments have been completed. An even better way is to have an enemy. An enemy is willing to devote a vast amount of time and brain power to ferreting out errors both large and small, and this without any compensation. The trouble is that really capable enemies are scarce; most of them are only ordinary. Another trouble with enemies is that they sometimes develop into friends and lose a good deal of their zeal. It was in this way the writer lost his three best enemies. Everyone, not just scientists, need a few good enemies!”[1]
If you take science seriously, you must take error as something for which we should always be vigilant, and something we are committed to eliminate. As Olah and Von Békésy have acknowledged, sometimes an enemy is required. It would thus seem to be quite unscientific to complain that an enemy was harassing you, when she was criticizing your data, study design, methods, or motives.
Elisabeth Margaretha Harbers-Bik would be a good enemy to have. Trained in the Netherlands in microbiology, Dr. Bik came to the United States, where for some years she conducted research at Stanford University. In 2018, Bik began in earnest a new career in analyzing published scientific studies for image duplication and manipulation, and other dubious practices.[2]
Her blog, Scientific Integrity Digest, should be on the reading list of every lawyer who labors in the muck of science repurposed for litigation. You never know when your adversary’s expert witness will be featured in the pages of the Digest!
Dr. Bik is not a lone ranger; there are other scientists who have committed to cleaning up the scientific literature. After an illustrious career as an editor of prestigious journals, and a director of the Rockefeller University Press, Dr. Mike Rossner founded Image Data Integrity, Inc., to stamp out image fraud and error in scientific publications.
On March 16, 2020, a gaggle of French authors, including Dr. Didier Raoult, uploaded a pre-print of a paper to medRxiv, reporting on hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin in Covid-19 patients. The authors submitted their manuscript that same day to the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, which accepted it in 24 hours or less, on March 17, 2020. The journal published the paper online, three days after acceptance, on March 20th. Peer-review, to the extent it took place, was abridged.[3]
The misleading title of the paper, “Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial,” may have led some untutored observers into thinking the paper reported a study high in the hierachy of evidence. Instead the paper was a rather flawed observational study, or perhaps just a concatenation of anecdotes. In any event, the authors reported that patients who had received both medications cleared the SARS-CoV2 the fastest.
Four days after publication online at a supposedly peer-reviewed journal, Elisabeth Bik posted an insightful analysis of the Raoult paper.[4] If peer review it were, her blog post pointed out the review’s failure by identifying an apparent conflict of interest and various methodological flaws, including missing data on six (out of 26) patients, including one patient who died, and three whose conditions worsened on therapy.
Raoult’s paper, and his overly zealous advocacy for HCQ did not go unnoticed in the world of kooks, speculators, and fraudfeasors. Elon Musk tweeted about Raoult’s paper; and Fox News amplified Musk’s tweet, which made it into the swamp of misinformation, Trump’s mind and his twitterverse.[5]
In the wake of the hoopla over Raoult’s paper, the journal owner admitted that the paper did not live up to the society’s standards. The publisher, Elsevier, called for an independent investigation. The French Infectious Diseases Society accused Raoult of spreading false information about hydroxychloroquine’s efficacy in Covid-19 patients. To date, there has been no further official discussions of disciplinary actions or proceedings at the Society.
Raoult apparently stewed over Bik’s criticisms and debunking of his over-interpretation of his flawed HCQ study. Last month, Raoult filed a complaint with a French prosecutor, which marked the commencement of legal proceedings against Bik for harassment and “extortion.” The extortion charge is based upon nothing more than Bik’s having a Patreon account to support her search for fraud and error in the published medical literature.[6]
The initial expression of outrage over Marseille Raoult’s bad behavior came from Citizen4Science, a French not-for-profit organization that works to promote scientific integrity. According to Dr. Fabienne Blum, president of Citizen4Science, the organization issued its press release on May 5, 2021, to call on authorities to investigate and to intervene in Raoult’s harassment of scientists. Their press release about “the French scandal” was signed by scientists and non-scientists from around the world; it currently remains open for signatures, which number well over 4,000. “Harassment of scientific spokespersons and defenders of scientific integrity: Citizen4Science calls on the authorities to intervene urgently” (May 5, 2021). Dr. Blum and Citizen4Science are now harassed on Twitter, where they have been labeled “Bik’s gang.” Inevitably, they will be sued as well.
On June 1st, Dr. Raoult posted his self-serving take on the controversy on that scholarly forum known as YouTube. An English translation of Raoult’s diatribe can be found at Citizen4Science’s website. Perhaps others have noted that Raoult refers to Bik as “Madame” (or Mrs.) Bik, rather than as Dr. Bik, which leads to some speculation that Raoult has trouble taking criticism from intelligent women.
Having projected his worst characteristics onto adversaries, Raoult lodged accusations against Bik, which actually reflected his own behaviors closely. Haven’t we seen someone in public life who operates just like this? Raoult has criticized Bik in the lay media, and he released personal information about her, including her residential address. Raoult’s intemperate and inappropriate personal attacks on Bik have led several hundred scientists to sign an open letter in support of Bik.[7]
This scientist doth protest too much, methinks.
[1] George Andrew Olah Nobel Prize Speech (1994) (quoting from George Von Békésy, Experiments in Hearing 8 (1960).
[2] Elisabeth M. Bik, Arturo Casadevall, and Ferric C. Fang, “The Prevalence of Inappropriate Image Duplication in Biomedical Research Publications,” 7 mBio e00809 (2016); Daniele Fanelli, Rodrigo Costas, Ferric C. Fang, Arturo Casadevall, Elisabeth M. Bik, “Testing Hypotheses on Risk Factors for Scientific Misconduct via Matched-Control Analysis of Papers Containing Problematic Image Duplications,” 25 Science & Engineering Ethics 771 (2019); see also Jayashree Rajagopalan, “I have found about 2,000 problematic papers, says Dr. Elisabeth Bik,” Editage Insights (Aug 08, 2019).
[3] Philippe Gautret, Jean-Christophe Lagier, Philippe Parola, Van Thuan Hoang, Line Meddeb, Morgane Mailhe, Barbara Doudier, Johan Courjon, Valérie Giordanengo, Vera Esteves Vieira, Hervé Tissot Dupont, Stéphane Honoré, Philippe Colson, Eric Chabrière, Bernard La Scola, Jean-Marc Rolain, Philippe Brouqui, and Didier Raoult, “Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial,” 56 Clinical Trial Internat’l J. Antimicrob. Agents e105949 (2020).
[4] Bik, “Thoughts on the Gautret et al. paper about Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin treatment of COVID-19 infections,” Scientific Integrity Digest (March 24, 2020).
[5] Charles Piller, “‘This is insane!’ Many scientists lament Trump’s embrace of risky malaria drugs for coronavirus,” Science Mag. (Mar. 26, 2020).
[6] Melissa Davey, “World expert in scientific misconduct faces legal action for challenging integrity of hydroxychloroquine study,” The Guardian (May 22, 2021); Kristina Fiore, “HCQ Doc Sues Critic,” MedPage Today (May 26, 2021).
[7] Lonni Besançon, Alexander Samuel, Thibault Sana, Mathieu Rebeaud, Anthony Guihur, Marc Robinson-Rechavi, Nicolas Le Berre, Matthieu Mulot, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, Maisonneuve, Brian A. Nosek, “Open Letter: Scientists stand up to protect academic whistleblowers and post-publication peer review,” (May 18, 2021).
