Regina Watteel
BSc. Hons. Math & Physics, MSc. PhD. Statistics; extensive experience in program evaluation & risk-benefit analysis
Tired of seeing statistics being used to defraud Canadians of their basic rights and freedoms. Calling out influential abusers, one article at a time.
When scientific misconduct is so rampant, how do you fight against it?
I’ve always loved math and the natural sciences. I was drawn to the rationality and purity of it. The end goal: to understand nature and the way things worked. I began my undergraduate studies in the natural science program, specializing in math and physics. I had taken a couple of statistics courses along the way and discovered that I had an intuitive knack for it, so I continued with graduate studies in that direction. With the sciences, the key is in asking the right questions. Statistics is simply a tool to help find the answers.
Well, that’s how it used to work in the pure sciences and in more honest times. Today’s reality is much different.
“Science” has morphed into something quite unfamiliar.
The idea of science - the pursuit of knowledge based on objective, rational reasoning and evidence - is quite alluring and almost noble in cause. But the application of it can be inconvenient and doesn’t always lead to desirable answers. This can be a problem when there’s an agenda at stake.
But there has been a trend in politics to hijack a term (and hence steal its reputation) and simply use it for something else, something more fit for purpose. “Science” has become a casualty of such reputational theft (another victim having been “vaccine”).
In politics, “science” is now used to describe a process that leads to a desired “scientific” outcome, void of the actual scientific process. All that’s needed to validate the “science” is enough scientists to go along with it while silencing or minimizing any opposition. For the latter, the terms “misinformation” and “disinformation” were hijacked and refit for purpose.
This refurbished “science” is now being used by politicians to justify circumventing the Constitution and imposing their will on Canadians.
This “new normal” is quite distressing for the logical minded. How can one possibly function in such a messed-up, corrupt system?
Indeed, when it comes to accountability, politicians can be quite slippery and they have many resources at their disposal. But scientists, well, they’re not so practiced in the slippery arts of deception (although some have made that transition and perhaps can no longer be called scientists at all).
So, how can we turn things around?
Well, I’m not sure.
But for science to be twisted the way it has been, a good many scientists or medical practitioners had to go along with it. Holding individual researchers to account for misconduct is one place to start and, given my background, it is something I can help with. So that’s where I’m putting my efforts.
The key is in targeting influential researchers or organizations that have committed provably egregious acts of scientific dishonesty. The simpler it is to describe the fraudulent behavior and the more repugnant the act, the easier it will be to convince the public and institutions to hold them to account.
Easy targets with a potentially impactful outcome. Which is why my first articles focused on David N. Fisman.
David Fisman engaged in, what I consider, blatant fraud including fabrication & falsification of data, then used the fraudulent study and his position to influence public policy and advocate for discrimination and segregation eerily reminiscent of Nazi-era hate science. He is a tenured professor at the University of Toronto, he has served on numerous legal and advisory boards during the pandemic, including the Ontario Covid-19 Science Advisory Table, and he has numerous ties to pharmaceutical companies.
Prior to April 25th, 2022 I had never heard of D. Fisman. But his fraudulent study, published by CMAJ, was so egregious, I started the StatsCritic newsletter and developed a new, targeted strategy in my fight for humanity.
