Neutral research?

The Herald reports:

New research has found babies are safe to sleep in a Maori flax-woven bassinet that was behind a Government policy U-turn last year.

Babies sleeping in the wahakura, or its $100 plastic sister the pepi-pod, are “relatively safe when compared with bassinets”, a joint study between the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic has found.

The research, which was recently published in leading scientific journal Pediatrics, concluded there were no significant differences in risk for infants sleeping in wahakura and that the pods came with advantages, including an increase in sustained breastfeeding.

I have no issue with the pods. They sound sensible and my feeling last year was that the Ministry of Health was being “perfect is the enemy of good” in opposing them.

However one paragraph in this story made me wonder:

Co-author of the research and wahakura founder, Tipene-Leach, said the study was a “major accomplishment”.

Doesn’t having the co-author of the research being the founder of the pods, rather fall short of best practice?