I'm late but I'm here
Not actually a lawyer
I apologize to anyone I shock with this revelation, but I’m not, in fact, a lawyer. And I’m certainly not a lawyer to scientists who’ve been summoned to testify in front of congress. You can tell I’m not a lawyer because I’m not charging anyone for anything. I actually work in data analysis for a B2B SaaS company. My life is idyllic. Given the recent precedent set by academics suing their critics for millions of dollars, I’ll continue writing under this RBA pseudonym for the foreseeable future. Yes, I know Doe suits are a thing, but so are principles of deterrence.
In the next weeks or perhaps months, depending on how long hashing out the technical details takes, I’ll be publishing a three part series on this substack. This might be the only series I ever do on substack, and this entire enterprise is a moving target. The preliminary analyses are done, but the trilogy itself is also a moving target, and some of my current premises might be incorrect. I’m hoping to use this as a vehicle to learn more.
There are irregularities in the early scientific literature surrounding the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic. Some of these irregularities seem to implicate scientists with very high h-indices. I intend to explore them in a high degree of technical detail. Latham and Husseini have written about some of these issues, but I intend to go a bit deeper. Currently, I don’t accept some of their conclusions, but posit the events in 2014 need to be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny.
Stay tuned.