[snapetom]

I was outraged when I first read that article, but taking a step back and catching up on recent progress, I came to the same conclusion you did. Words like "nefarious", "fraud", and "corrupt" were thrown around, but no one was actively was seeking to do harm.

The harm was done by the groupthink and the sucking up of resources to research alternative causes. One of the comments on HN when that statnews article was first linked was by a commenter who worked on Alzheimer's. They agreed and I remember the line, (something to the effect of) "if you wanted funding for alternative investigations, you had to still throw a bone to beta amyloid in your proposal."

Was it all a waste? No. Current thought is beta amyloid is still involved, but Alzheimer's is multicausal. What those other causes are is in its investigation infancy. We could have started investigating those decades ago if the scientific research complex were truly open to new ideas.