The Second Mayo Clinic Trial: A ‘Conspiracy to Suppress the Truth’?

Abstract

In October 1984, Pauling reopened his correspondence with Moertel. He had heard a number of reports to the effect that the second Mayo Clinic trial had been concluded and that publication of the results was imminent in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pauling asked if Moertel would send him a copy of the manuscript a few weeks before publication, so that he might have time to prepare for the reporters: I pledge that I would not make any public use of the information in the proofsheets or manuscript until the date of publication. This procedure is, of course, usually followed by scientists as a courtesy to one another. (19 October 1984) On 30 November Moertel confirmed in a letter to Pauling that the paper had indeed been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine. He undertook to make certain that a true copy of the manuscript would be in Pauling’s hands a short time before publication date. But it was the press who got the pre-publication copies first, three days before Pauling received his on the actual date of publication — 17 January 1985. Feelings ran high at the Institute, with Pauling and Cameron besieged by reporters. Pauling was outraged by what he construed (and denounced in the media) as Moertel’s ‘unprofessional’ conduct in deliberately withholding the paper from him and making it impossible for him to comment on a study he had not seen.