From The BMJ Opinion: “Serious concerns have dogged health research for decades. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed these systemic failures to a wider public that has never been more engaged in science and medicine. As doctors and researchers, we have failed to fix these problems on our own. We now have an opportunity to join patients and the public to demand solutions . . .
Our failure to remedy this situation is a betrayal of public trust . . . Yet aside from some researchers and patients who have tried to get answers for themselves, awareness of the crisis in research remains limited. Excluding the wider public from this debate is a wasted opportunity, since, as both funders of research and as patients, they have the biggest stake in rectifying these problems. Without mobilising support for reform from outside, as well as inside, the research establishment, it seems unlikely that we can challenge the status quo of mediocre and opaque research practices.”
