Scientific integrity tested by the Covid-19 pandemic

In October 2020, the world's three top medical journals, The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and Nature denounced, in their editorials, the United States' response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and appealed to US citizens to vote for change (1,2,3). Nature went to the extent of naming the candidate to vote for. The Lancet has a history of making comments and taking positions on political issues. However, what surprised many was the NEJM editorial, signed by several of its editors, taking a partisan political position for the first time since it was established in 1812, 208 years ago (4). These editorials express not only disappointment with the political leadership, but anger against its wilful disregard of science, undermining of services in the public sector and regulatory institutions, gross partisan political interference in science, and so on.