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Last 50 Editorials

(Most recent listed first. Click on title to be directed to the manuscript.)

US Attorney Demands CHEST Assurance of “Viewpoint Diversity”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Nominated as HHS Secretary: Choices for Senators
   and Healthcare Providers
If You Want to Publish, Be Part of the Process
A Call for Change in Healthcare Governance
The Decline in Professional Organization Growth Has Accompanied the
   Decline of Physician Influence on Healthcare
Hospitals, Aviation and Business
Healthcare Labor Unions-Has the Time Come?
Who Should Control Healthcare?
Book Review: One Hundred Prayers: God's answer to prayer in a COVID
   ICU
One Example of Healthcare Misinformation
Doctor and Nurse Replacement
Combating Physician Moral Injury Requires a Change in Healthcare
   Governance
How Much Should Healthcare CEO’s, Physicians and Nurses Be Paid?
   Improving Quality in Healthcare 
Not All Dying Patients Are the Same
Medical School Faculty Have Been Propping Up Academic Medical
Centers, But Now Its Squeezing Their Education and Research
   Bottom Lines
Deciding the Future of Healthcare Leadership: A Call for Undergraduate
   and Graduate Healthcare Administration Education
Time for a Change in Hospital Governance
Refunds If a Drug Doesn’t Work
Arizona Thoracic Society Supports Mandatory Vaccination of Healthcare
   Workers
Combating Morale Injury Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men
Clinical Care of COVID-19 Patients in a Front-line ICU
Why My Experience as a Patient Led Me to Join Osler’s Alliance
Correct Scoring of Hypopneas in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Reduces
   Cardiovascular Morbidity
Trump’s COVID-19 Case Exposes Inequalities in the Healthcare System
Lack of Natural Scientific Ability
What the COVID-19 Pandemic Should Teach Us
Improving Testing for COVID-19 for the Rural Southwestern American Indian
   Tribes
Does the BCG Vaccine Offer Any Protection Against Coronavirus Disease
   2019?
2020 International Year of the Nurse and Midwife and International Nurses’
   Day
Who Should be Leading Healthcare for the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Why Complexity Persists in Medicine
Fatiga de enfermeras, el sueño y la salud, y garantizar la seguridad del
   paciente y del publico: Unir dos idiomas (Also in English)
CMS Rule Would Kick “Problematic” Doctors Out of Medicare/Medicaid
Not-For-Profit Price Gouging
Some Clinics Are More Equal than Others
Blue Shield of California Announces Help for Independent Doctors-A
   Warning
Medicare for All-Good Idea or Political Death?
What Will Happen with the Generic Drug Companies’ Lawsuit: Lessons from
   the Tobacco Settlement
The Implications of Increasing Physician Hospital Employment
More Medical Science and Less Advertising
The Need for Improved ICU Severity Scoring
A Labor Day Warning
Keep Your Politics Out of My Practice
The Highest Paid Clerk
The VA Mission Act: Funding to Fail?
What the Supreme Court Ruling on Binding Arbitration May Mean to
   Healthcare 
Kiss Up, Kick Down in Medicine 
What Does Shulkin’s Firing Mean for the VA?

 

For complete editorial listings click here.

The Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care welcomes submission of editorials on journal content or issues relevant to the pulmonary, critical care or sleep medicine. Authors are urged to contact the editor before submission.

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Entries in Edward Martin (1)

Saturday
Apr262025

US Attorney Demands CHEST Assurance of “Viewpoint Diversity”

NBC News is reporting on a Facebook posting of a letter from the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to the editor of CHEST. The letter implies that the medical journal was partisan and asks a series of questions about how the publication protects the public from misinformation; whether it included competing viewpoints; and whether CHEST was influenced by funders or advertisers (1). The letter from acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin states, “It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates”.  Martin goes on to state that “you [CHEST] have certain responsibilities”

The letter was originally posted on X by Dr. Eric Reinhart, a clinician based at Northwestern. Reinhart described the letter as designed to “intimidate” and called it “fascist tactics.” The letter caught the attention of First Amendment groups raising concerns about suppression and some scientists, as well as Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonprofit civil liberties group which has been critical of Martin. The letter raises concerns of the Department of Justice harassment being used to suppress academic and scientific freedom. ”It’s really unusual when you see a U.S. Attorney from the Distinct of Columbia sending a letter to a publication based in Illinois inquiring about their editorial practices, in particular, a journal from a medical organization,” said JT Morris, a senior supervising attorney for the FIRE (1). “That screams of a government official going after a publication because it disagrees with what the publication is saying.”

The editors of the SWJPCCS listed below condemn actions designed to harass and intimidate  scientific journals. The SWJPCCS supports CHEST’s editors in making scientific editorial decisions for their journal. If those with a differing viewpoint have legitimate scientific data, not opinion, supporting an alternative viewpoint, let them submit it to the appropriate medical journal. If they choose to submit to the SWJPCCS, we will provide an unbiased scientific review and an appropriate editorial decision will be made. Scientific journals do have a responsibility to publish legitimate scientific data and to protect the public from non-data-based opinions that might lead to potential patient harm.

Janet Campion MD

Bhargavi Gali MD

Brooks T. Kuhn MD

Manoj Mathew MD

Michael Peterson MD

Stuart F. Quan MD

Richard A. Robbins MD

George Su MD

Angela Wang MD

Carolyn Welsh MD

Lewis J. Wesselius MD

Editors of the SWJPCCS*

References

  1. Bush E. U.S. attorney demands scientific journal explain how it ensures 'viewpoint diversity'. NBC News. April 18, 2025. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/us-attorney-demands-scientific-journal-explain-ensures-viewpoint-diver-rcna201929 (accessed 4/23/25).

*The opinions expressed are those of the editors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their parent institutions or the American Thoracic Society and its chapters.

Cite as: Campion J, Gali B, Kuhn BT, Mathew M, Peterson M, Quan SF, Robbins RA, Su G, Wang A, Welsh C. US Attorney Demands CHEST Assurance of “Viewpoint Diversity”. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care Sleep. 2025;30(4):44-45. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpccs012-25 PDF