"Writing for Science-Based Medicine, David Gorski, Professor of Surgery at Wayne State University, stated: "One possible interpretation is that Drs. Gupta, Bhattacharya, and Kulldorff are politically very naïve or were simply being useful idiots" for the American Institute for Economic Research, the organization promoting it, or whether they were actively being "motivated more by ideology than science", but said that the practical effect was that the declaration provided a narrative of scientific division useful for political purposes.",(reply>), I think it's a really important consideration that the authors of the GBD should've made: what the practical effect would be. They really could've wrote it differently or used a different approach to communicate their concerns. As it happened, those concerns were completely lost in the background of the unfolding drama.