Breathing fire, The Lancet talks of sanctions including the ostracism of journalists involved in the leaking of research before publication. Here Englemed must depart company from Horton. British scientists and doctors are already uniquely bad at communicating research findings. Too often peer reviewed publication is used as an excuse for secrecy and straightforward arrogance. There is a specific role for sanctions.
Journalists have access to a great deal of embargoed medical research.
Those embargoes must be kept sacrosanct and Englemed, like others, endeavours to observe them. But the leaking of the HRT research to the Sunday Times took place several days before the release of the embargoed paper. The notion that sanctions could be applied against journalists for showing enterprise will merely add gripe water to those who are too lazy to communicate their work well. The serious matter was the distortion of the findings of the research. Allegedly the journalist misunderstood the conclusions.