Wow. @TheLancet has gone bonkers
It just ran a book review arguing that focusing on sperm/eggs as male/female is bad bcuz it promotes "gametic" bigotry, & so “fuels unhinged panic in some quarters about transgender threats to traditional gender roles”
This is a MEDICAL journal https://t.co/F4KSeMEZum
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) August 6, 2025
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Worth reading Carole Hooven's full thread.
Lancet editor Richard Horton has quite a history…
- on Covid, publishing that group letter organised by the zoologist Peter Daszak on the origins of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus ‘strongly condemn[ing] conspiracy theories’ about a lab leak, and praising China on state-owned broadcaster China Central Television for how ‘tremendously decisively’ the Chinese Communist party had handled the pandemic.
- on MMR, publishing Andrew Wakefield – not retracted for twelve years.
- publishing a letter in Lancet in 2014 from a number of pro-Palestinian activists which the Israeli Ministry of Health characterised as “bordering on blood libel".
- the case of Sir Roy Meadows.
- railing against "the axis of Anglo-American imperialism" at a 2006 rally in Manchester.
Still editor-in-chief though.
Added, from Marcus Evans:
In 2019, after resigning as governor of @TaviAndPort [the Tavistock Clinic] ,@TheLancet contacted me for an interview about my decision. I raised concerns about the Trust’s promotion of unevidenced, sometimes irreversible medical interventions on children, despite staff and parent complaints. The journal initially showed interest.
I am grateful to you @jonkay, for editing a piece I wrote for @Quillette, but The Lancet editor informed me the article was dropped without explanation.
Disappointing from a journal that should prioritize medical ethics over ideology. Like the @BMA, many medical institutions have lost their moral compass, and public confidence is declining.
Mick Hartley 
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