A major example, out of several...
By John Droz, Jr. August 18, 2025
This is Part 3 of the discussion of my view of the corrupting influence that the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) has on America. See Part 1 & Part 2.
In
the prior commentary, I promised two specific major examples of the
negative influence of NAS on our society. The first (re K-12 Science
education) is in Part 2. This is the second.
In 2025, NAS published a 330± page treatise with a promising title: “Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science.”
The
question is: is this real Science, or is it more of the same malarky
put out by Left-wing groups cleverly disguised as real Science? I say
the latter.
NAS and COVID - 19 Early Treatment -
Let’s
look at one of the most significant Science issues of our lifetime: the
COVID-19 matter, and the resultant government policies. NAS acknowledges that it was “Created to Advise the Government,” specifically to provide us:
“independent,
objective advice to inform policy with evidence, spark progress and
innovation, and confront challenging issues for the benefit of society.”
[Note that the word “Scientific” (e.g., scientific advice) is MIA.]
So what does this new NAS book say about COVID-19? Here is a representative sample (see page 36):
“Explanations
of the origins and transmission of COVID-19 evolved continuously over
several months as new knowledge and evidence accumulated… {For example,}
there was uncertainty about the potential effectiveness of
hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a treatment for COVID-19 at the beginning of
the pandemic. Over the next few months, as more studies were published
assessing the potential therapeutic benefit of HCQ, the picture became
clearer that HCQ was not an effective treatment (Abella et al., 2021; Bull-Otterson et al., 2020; Hennekens et al., 2022; The RECOVERY Collaborative Group, 2020)…”
Now, to 99.9% of the readers of that material, this all sounds scientific and very reasonable. But is it? Let’s look at this important matter more closely.
Considering that over 1.1 Million Americans died from COVID-19 (almost three times the number of Americans killed in WWII!), a fundamental scientific medical question is: do we have any effective early treatments of COVID-19? In other words, if a person is diagnosed with COVID-19, is immediate treatment with XYZ statistically beneficial?
This part of the NAS book addressed whether HCQ (a popular option) was effective for early treatment of COVID-19, and the NAS position is unequivocally NO, it is not.
To support their official answer to this MAJOR life-and-death matter,
they cite four “scientific studies.” Just the fact of seeing citations
will convince 99% of the public that there is merit to their conclusion.
But is there?
As a scientist, I don’t take
people’s word (including NAS scientists’ word) for such an important
matter. As a minimum, I will read the cited studies to see what they
actually say. Here is what I found:
FACT ONE: NONE of the four citations above supports NAS’s conclusion!
Abella: Not an applicable study regarding the effectiveness of HCQ, as it was a “Very small, early-terminated, underpowered PrEP RCT.”
Bull-Otterson: Not a study on HCQ efficacy, but a discussion of HCQ prescriptions.
Hennekens: Not a study on HCQ efficacy but a personal commentary.
RECOVERY: Not applicable as this is a late-stage (not an early treatment) study.
Conclusion: Zero of these citations support the NAS statement that“HCQ was not an effective treatment.” This is dishonest and incompetent!
FACT TWO: What do legitimate studies actually say about HCQ?
Remembering that this Report was published in 2025, it turns out that 38 HCQ Early Treatment COVID-19 studies were available to the authors. Stunningly, ZERO of these were cited!
What did these published studies conclude? The results are that Early Treatment of COVID-19 patients with HCQ has a 66%± efficacy rate!
This is an extremely positive conclusion. For example (per the data):
1) The FDA favored Paxlovid with an EUA, and based on 59 studies, it has an Early Treatment effectiveness of only 18%.
2) The FDA also gave Molnupiravir an EUA, and based on their own study, it had an Early Treatment effectiveness of 30%. Additional studies have since been done, and the current Early Treatment effectiveness is actually 9%.
3) Despite the HCQ studies and their superior results (e.g., here), the FDA (to this date) has not given HCQ the blessing of an EUA. Strong support from NAS would have made this happen.
The superior effectiveness of HCQ (which was available long before either of the FDA-endorsed options) indicates that hundreds
of thousands of American lives would likely have been saved if NAS had
gotten behind this effective, inexpensive, and safe COVID-19 early
treatment option.
FACT THREE: This recent unscientific treatment of HCQ is consistent with NAS's prior efforts.
For example, NAS had released an earlier major Report: “Critical Findings on COVID-19: Select Publications from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.” So what does it say in that about HCQ?
First,
it lists it as an “unproven drug” (page 251). Then it says (page 268):
“the roll out of hydroxychloroquine under EUA illustrated the potential
risks when more complete data will show a treatment released under EUA lacks benefit and is associated with serious safety concerns.”
I’ve already disproven the inaccurate “unproven drug” as well as the dishonest “lacks benefit” assertions (see above).
To
support their claim of “serious safety concerns,” it lists one
citation, a study by Chen, et al. Again, I had the temerity to go and
read the Chen study. The stunning thing is that the study does not even mention HCQ! In other words, the NAS sentence regarding HCQ is extremely misleading.
What
we had then (and still have now) is unscientific information conveyed
to the public by NAS. Astoundingly, the most recent misinformation is in
a book about Scientific Misinformation, written by the National Academies of Sciences!!!
NAS and hte Scientific Method -
One other sample comment about the NAS book relates to the prior Part 2
commentary. That was about how NAS has been instrumental in undermining
the Science education of our K-12 students by creating the NGSS…
One of the main concerns there is that they have purposefully removed the traditional Scientific Method
from the NGSS curriculum. Based on that, out of curiosity, I searched
this new polemic for “scientific method.” There was one single mention
in 356 pages (page 47). It says this:
“The
Scientific Method is generally viewed as a reliable, and thus a
trustworthy, process for gaining knowledge about an increasingly complex
world beset by multifaceted problems (e.g., environmental degradation,
public health threats).”
This is a radically
different position than what was taken by the multiple NAS members when
they wrote the NGSS/Framework. So is this NAS’ way of saying that their
prior position on the Scientific Method was misinformation?
What Next -
The implications and consequences of the National Academies of Sciences having radically departed from Real Science are extraordinarily profound — and too extensive to cover in this installment. Part 4 will outline those, along with some suggestions for solving this gigantic problem.
Please give this matter some Critical Thinking, as your input as a victimized person could be invaluable.
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