Harvard University Produces & Promotes Junk Science

Posted: 1/12/2019

Just read this astonishing article in the Harvard Gazette: Researcher finds Coke’s fingerprints on health policy in China. This professor did not find any fingerprints!

Harvard University professor Susan Greenhalgh offers only scant/sketchy evidence to corroborate her allegations that Coca Cola engages in illegal activities to undermine government activities to combat rising pandemic obesity in China.

“A complex network of research funding, institutional ties, and personal influence allowed Coca-Cola, through connections with a nonprofit group, to exert substantial influence over obesity science and policy solutions in China, nudging government policy into alignment with the company’s corporate interests, a Harvard study has found.” (emphasis added)

Chinese communist party officials are probably laughing their ass off about this!

““There have been decades of work on how Big Pharma and Big Tobacco have tried to influence science and dictate policy, but the research on Big Food and Big Soda is just now emerging,” said Greenhalgh” (emphasis added)

Looks like this professor is a professional conspiracy theorist and draws liberal analogies!

““When I reviewed China’s policies, I could see them using the very same language Coke did,” she added. “For example, they talk about energy balance and making physical activity part of medical treatment or balancing eating and moving … their policy aligns very well with Coke’s interests, and it’s out of alignment with some of the policies advocated by the World Health Organization.”” (emphasis added)

Does the professor perhaps suffer from paranoia?

“Greenhalgh conducted extended interviews with obesity and public health experts in China to gauge their concern on possible industry bias. Most were unfazed.

“The vast majority said there was no conflict of interest,” she said. “There were a tiny handful who believed that whenever corporations are funding science it will inevitably be biased, but they were very much in the minority, and most asked me not to use their names because they were afraid of possible consequences … because the political culture in China is very business friendly and pro-West.” (emphasis added)

So the presumably leftist professor does not like when Chinese officials are pro free market?

To blame the serious obesity crisis in such a manner on Coca Cola, although a variety of factors have contributed to this crisis, is quite unprofessional.