Mick Hartley

That Lancet front cover – "bodies with vaginas": of course we shouldn't forget that the journal's editor, with a history of poor judgements, is Richard Horton. Debbie Hayton suggests that this is all part of his personal political mission:

The Lancet — one of the world’s oldest and best-known medical journals — is on a mission. The publication might claim that “improving lives is the only end goal,” but editor Richard Horton has grand plans. His vision, which he laid out in 2016 is political revolution.

“The idea of the Lancet was born at an extraordinary moment in the history of the world in the early 19th century which was a moment of political revolution and social revolt. We have to capture that idea every single day in what we do… What I think we’re trying to achieve now is to capture that original idea – the essence of who we are, our identity, in these campaigns that we are developing.”

This journal is of course no stranger to controversy. In 1998, it published Andrew Wakefield’s now notorious article that linked the MMR vaccine with chronic enterocolitis and autism. By the time that paper was retracted — 12 years later — children had been harmed. According to Public Health England, “It had an important impact on MMR coverage which dropped to about 80% nationally in the late nineties and early 2000s and took many years to recover. … Measles cases continued to rise and in 2006 endemic transmission became re-established in the UK.”

Horton has strayed over the line from medicine into politics repeatedly, covering for example the invasion of Iraq and the conflict in Gaza. While he has been quick to challenge the UK government over the response to Covid-19, he has been rather more forgiving of the Chinese authorities.

And of course there was that notorious letter from Peter Daszak and colleagues in February last year, which called out any mention of a lab-leak as conspiracy theory, without bothering to note Daszak's clear conflict of interest.

…as in the MMR debacle over 20 years ago it is children who are being put at risk of harm. They have no special knowledge about their gender identity — nobody does — but promises are being made to them that can never be delivered: that they can somehow choose to be a boy or a girl. The flip side of course is the implied threat that if they choose incorrectly, they may go through the “wrong” puberty and never find satisfaction in life.

Now this quasi-religious belief system is being given legitimacy on the front cover of The Lancet. It took the journal 12 years to retract the misinformation over the MMR vaccine. For the sake of the current generation of young people, Horton needs to rectify this current outrage somewhat more quickly.

I posted about Horton and his "litany of poor judgement" back in July. But he's still editor- in-chief.

Update: here's a statement from Richard Horton.

I would like to thank all those who have responded to the words on this week’s Lancet cover and understand the strength of feeling it has provoked. The Lancet strives for maximum inclusivity of all people in its vision for advancing health. In this instance, we have conveyed the impression that we have dehumanised and marginalised women. Those who read The Lancet regularly will understand that this would never have been our intention. I apologise to our readers who were offended by the cover quote and the use of those same words in the review. At the same time, I want to emphasise that transgender health is an important dimension of modern health care, but one that remains neglected. Trans people regularly face stigma, discrimination, exclusion, and poor health, often experiencing difficulties accessing appropriate health care. The exhibition review from which The Lancet cover quote was taken is a compelling call to empower women, together with non-binary, trans, and intersex people who have experienced menstruation, and to address the myths and taboos that surround menstruation. The review, like the exhibition, puts these myths and taboos into historical context. The review calls for greater efforts to overcome the lack of knowledge and stigma too often associated with menstruation. These are serious issues that demand serious actions. We encourage people to read the full review and support a growing movement against menstrual shame and period poverty.

Yep, as we guessed, it's all about the trans people.