Trump’s DoJ is sending letters to medical journals.
Bloomberg Finance
In the Trump administration, even academic journals of medical research are being scrutinized for being too woke.
On April 14, the peer-reviewed medical journal CHEST, which focuses on respiratory diseases and sleep medicine, received a letter from Edward Martin, Jr., the U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia, probing whether the publication is “partisan,” and asking a series of questions about its acceptance of “competing viewpoints.”
The letter was posted on BlueSky and on X by Dr. Eric Reinhart, a social psychiatrist based in Chicago, on Thursday. The American College of Chest Physicians, which publishes CHEST, confirmed to Forbes by email on Friday afternoon that it had received the letter, which it said was posted online without its knowledge.
“Legal counsel is currently reviewing the DOJ request,” spokesperson Laura DiMasi told Forbes by email. “We have no further comment on this issue at this time.”
Trade publication MedPage Today reported on Friday that at least three journals had received the letters. It did not identify the other two publications.
The letter posted in full online was addressed to CHEST’s editor Dr. Peter Mazzone, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic. In it, Martin wrote that “more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates,” and asked that they answer five questions by May 2. These include how they protect the public from misinformation, whether they accept articles from competing viewpoints and how they handle allegations that authors may have misled their readers.
CHEST’s DiMasi pointed to the 90-year-old publication’s statement of principals that noted it adhered to the ethical guidelines for scholarly publishing, and that it had “published numerous articles that were breakthroughs in scientific research and clinical treatment, advancing the medical profession and improving the health and well-being of patients worldwide.”
Forbes reached out to seven other medical journals by email, including top publications like JAMA and Science. None responded except for the New England Journal of Medicine, which said it had not received a letter from the DOJ.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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