The fear of tarnishing the UN’s already precarious reputation in Haiti had muzzled the epidemiological community. Piarroux struggled to publish his findings. The Lancet rejected his article without explanation, at the same time publishing an editorial entitled “As Cholera Returns to Haiti, Blame Is Unhelpful.” The Emerging Infectious Disease Journal eventually accepted the paper but had five reviewers—rather than the usual two or three—confirm its accuracy. The UN only accepted blame grudgingly in 2016, more than six years after the first victims died.
