Written by Howard Whiteman
Murray State University
“What Ricky was saying was that some scientists are fabricating the data and that CWD isn’t as prevalent as we think,” more or less a few weeks ago. These were the words my neighbor told me. It smelled like a conspiracy theory, so I went home and Googled it. To my utter surprise, that wasn’t the case.
This is the crux of the story. A wildlife biologist working for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) claimed that TWRA members were intentionally using flawed data. TWRA conducted tests that confirmed his suspicions. Four “positive” cases were actually negative after a second test. Rather than follow their own protocols and admit their mistake, they decided to change the rules and functionally cover it up. When he wrote a memo to TWRA’s oversight committee, the TWRA Wildlife Committee, calling them out, TWRA raided his home, took his computer and cell phone, put him on leave, and eventually… He is said to have been fired. In response, he filed a civil lawsuit and became an official “whistleblower.”
This goes beyond just the everyday employee. He was the director of TWRA’s deer management program and chair of the agency’s CWD (chronic wasting disease) deer management team. He knew exactly what was wrong. Biologists say only two counties have tested positive for CWD, instead of 16.
So Ricky was partially right. There is fabricated data and CWD may not be as prevalent in Tennessee as we once thought. TWRA relied on preliminary tests that could result in “false positives,” or tests that appear to be positive but may not actually be. If the first test yields a positive result, a second, definitive (and more expensive) test is performed. Most state agencies do something similar. However, it appears that someone at TWRA decided that a second test was no longer worth doing. Perhaps a lawsuit will reveal why.
But it wasn’t the scientists who made this mistake. It was their boss. In fact, the wildlife biologist in question appears to be risking his career to ensure that clear science is not ignored. That courage is typical of ethical scientists.
You’ve probably heard about other conspiracy theories in science for years. Some are about climate change, some are about pandemics, but they have little basis in reality. Scientists make mistakes, but we adhere to strict ethics and standards and hold each other accountable through regional and national conferences and peer review during the publication process. These efforts ensure that when scientists say something, it means something, a science-based truth.
This is not the first scientist who may have been targeted by those in power for publishing results. Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, James Hansen, Tyrone Hayes, Anthony Fauci, the list is long. They were all trying to understand the world around us and, in some cases, use their science to make Earth a better place for their fellow humans. But not everyone appreciates good science, especially when it goes against their worldviews, beliefs, or business opportunities.
Unfortunately, in this case the data flaw actually caused the panic. In Henry and Wheatley counties, just one positive his-her CWD case hit the community like a sledgehammer. Suddenly, some people didn’t want to hunt, and everyone was worried about sick deer.
Kentucky, which currently bans CWD, was put on high alert because Henry County was the first border county to test positive, spending countless hours and money trying to better understand what was going on. We sampled deer using Western Kentucky even has special regulations in place, especially because of the close proximity of these “positive” tests.
Kentucky should also sue because the single positive case in Henry County may mean nothing given that TWRA did not follow up on the second test. When they followed up with other samples, they found that the data had changed. However, additional tests were performed on him only four times. Maybe because the lawsuit is pending, maybe because they don’t want to pay for his second test yet, or maybe because they’re not ready to admit their mistake yet, using new data. I haven’t seen the updated map yet.
Scientists do their best to provide the best data possible to understand the questions we have about our world. Their bosses don’t always see it the same way, and politicians and the companies that fund them do the same, and science is often viewed in ways that benefit their worldviews, political goals, or stock prices. It may distort your findings. The science we already know, such as alternative energy sources, new medical technologies, and ways to restore our natural environment, can only be useful if it is understood and accepted, rather than attacked.
We should always question science. Because that’s a scientist’s job. we ask each other questions. It’s part of the scientific process. But we also need to trust science, whether it fits our worldview or not. In this case, as in many others, the science was sound and it was the failure of others not following the science that caused the unnecessary panic and confusion about his current CWD. We can only hope that TWRA, other state and federal agencies, and each of us learn from this mistake.
Dr. Howard Whiteman is the Federal Endowed Chair in Environmental Studies and Professor in the College of Biological Sciences at Murray State University. He is also the director of the Watershed Research Institute.