The Harm of Junk “Studies”

As a cat lover, this article from Huffington Post caught my eye:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cats-mental-illness-toxoplasma_us_58adc06ae4b03d80af714072?

The “study” debunked here is just one example of many, many such junk “studies” that come out all the time. This junk science does enormous harm. There are all sorts of ax-grinders that sit in waiting for some purportedly scientific “study” to confirm their obsessions. Then we never hear the end of it, even after the junk has been thoroughly debunked. Consider the harm done by that one published anti-vaccine article some years back. Repeatedly trashed, debunked, invalidated, and scorned, it is still doing damage. Really, there should be some way to hold “researchers” responsible who do sloppy, irresponsible, egregiously incompetent and damaging “studies.” Maybe the American Association for the Advancement of Science or some such organization should have an annual “Razzy”-type award for the worst, junkiest “study” published that year.