I have the greatest admiration for those who are prepared to stick their necks out, and often to risk their careers, to ‘whistle-blow’ when they witness instances of malpractice. Not that I am suggesting for a moment that Dr Briffa is a whistle-blower as such – but he constantly raises questions with which fellow members of his profession may feel uncomfortable.

Two recent posts on his blog certainly fall into this category – and are worth a read. One suggests that doctor’s strikes may be beneficial for patients. As reported at the time in the BMJ, in 2000 a large number of Israeli doctors went out on strike – and mortality rates fell.

The second warns, once again, that you should not believe everything that you read, even in scientific journals, suggesting that the apparently trustworthy record of UK scientists may have more to do with ‘closed, competitive and fearful’ culture of the British medical establishment than with the integrity of its researchers.

This reminded me of the amazing work done by researchers in revealing the distinctly dodgy goings on in many eminent circles – especially since I have recently been receiving emails from Dr Lucija Tomljenovic of the University of British Columbia who relentlessly tracked the abuses of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (see her presentation at the BSEM conference last year).

If you are shocked by this you might also want to read a recent post on the VaccineTruth site charting Dr Lisa Blakemore-Brown’s tireless efforts (very much to the detriment of her own career) to uncover the truth around the labeling of parents of vaccine damaged children as suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (when a parent pretends that a child is ill when it is not).