Scientists blamed for olive-tree ruin (2015)

> On 12 May, the Italian Association of Scientific Societies in Agriculture (AISSA), which represents 4,000 scientists in Italy, published a public letter defending the Puglian scientists and their work. “The claims do not have a scientific basis — that’s what has shocked the scientific community,” says Vincenzo Gerbi, AISSA president.

Unfortunately, such letters will forever be tainted by the legacy of Daszak & co. I used to think (perhaps naively) that scientists wouldn't make such public defences without clear reasonable evidence that what they were saying was true. The fact that it was done so brazenly in a worldwide pandemic that everyone was focused on, and still had very little negative consequences for them, makes it clear that the incentive structure is not too heavily stacked in favour of honesty and scientific integrity.