Re: Selecting Optimal Subgroups for Treatment Using Many Covariates.

e30 | www.epidem.com © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. (one of us has 24 joint published articles with Kromhout1 and has cherished scientific discussions with him), while identifying the devastating effects of climate change, deny the role of specific industries and the social responsibility of the scientific community in responding. It is obvious that the work we have in front of us, even within our environmental health societies, is complex. In our response4 to three previous letters to our commentary,3 we noted that energy companies and their financial backers continue to increase fossil energy production ignoring the dire warnings from climate scientists and public health. We mentioned that policies of the fossil fuel extraction industry and those of the tobacco industry to sell their products and consciously deceive society ignoring the damages to health are practically identical. We also said that we have to make radical change in how we manage the resources on our fragile planet, particularly in energy production, because the transition off of fossil sources is urgent. We reiterated our firm belief in the value of dialogue in the society, consensus approaches, and solutions that involve cooperation by all sectors. We mentioned that the three letters similar to that of Kromhout1 are part of the old thinking trying to deflect the responsibilities of the companies and the scientists they support. We finally reiterated that the old practice of accepting research money from an industry that contributes mightily to the crisis is wrong. All of that applies also to Kromhout’s1 letter.