Irish comedian Graham Linehan, recently arrested for offending against Britain’s new hate speech laws, wouldn’t seem like the obvious person to offer a well-aimed correction to science journals. But we live in strange times.

Fighting back at his substack, Glinner Update, against attempts to silence him on the abuses of youth “gender” medicine, he highlights journals’ refusals to correct misrepresentations of the science record:

‘Censorship of Essential Debate in Gender Medicine Research’ has the dullest possible title for what it reveals. In yet another example of trans ideology destroying everything it touches, the most prestigious journals in medicine are refusing to publish corrections to papers that contain demonstrably false claims about gender medicine.

The author, J. Cohn, didn’t set out to write about censorship. She tried to correct errors in published papers. When that didn’t work, she described what happened. She found that multiple systematic reviews (the gold standard in evidence-based medicine) have found low or very low-certainty evidence for the benefits of medical gender interventions. This includes puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery. ‘Low certainty’ means there’s limited confidence the estimated effects will match what actually happens to patients.

The Cass Review, published in 2024, found the evidence for paediatric interventions “remarkably weak.” Several other systematic reviews found the same for patients under 21 and under 26.

None have found that these interventions reduce suicide risk.

Meanwhile, major medical journals keep publishing papers claiming the opposite.

“Intellectual Quackery,” October 28, 2025

But Cohn (pseud) got nowhere; what she found was a closed loop:

The AAP cited the Endocrine Society. The Endocrine Society cited WPATH. WPATH cited the AAP. A recent review of these guidelines found that most societies’ recommendations rely on each other rather than independent evidence. The authors concluded: “Healthcare services and professionals should take into account the poor quality and interrelated nature of published guidance.”

In other words: idea laundering. Weak claims get passed around between authoritative-sounding bodies until they take on the appearance of established facts. “Intellectual Quackery”

Meanwhile, a thought-provoking article (for all the wrong reasons) in the Templeton Foundation’s magazine Nautilus, advises us that the way to win back the public’s waning trust in science is to remind everybody that “Scientists Are People, Too”:

Suffice it to say that, regardless of its manifold benefits we enjoy every day, science is on its heels.

There are many reasons for this, but according to Alan Lightman and Martin Rees, much of the problem comes down to the fact that the general public simply doesn’t have a good understanding of what science is and what scientists do.

Nick Hilden, September 11, 2024

Yes, scientists are people too. But so was Mussolini. If that’s the argument, I’m afraid it’s not much help in restoring trust.

And if you need a hounded Irish comedian to tell you what you are doing wrong, take heart. You are hitting bottom now.