Medicine & healthcare

Study That Promoted 'Miracle' COVID Treatment Retracted

DEC 20 2024·Updated DEC 21 2024

Story

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The Facts

Elsevier, a Dutch academic publishing company that owns the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, has officially retracted a March 2020 study promoting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment.
Firstpost
guardian
The retraction note explained that it was unclear if participants provided ethical approval before joining the research and that their data may not have been entered in time to be analyzed. The study has become the highest-cited retracted COVID paper.
Nature
Elsevier said concerns had been raised regarding the study's "ethics policies and the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants" as well as its "methodology and conclusions."
EuroNews
Three of the study's authors — Johan Courjon, Valérie Giordanengo, and Stéphane Honoré — withdrew their names due to concerns about methodology and result interpretation. Several other authors, however, have disputed the retraction.
guardian
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially granted emergency authorization for the antimalarial drug. However, scientists raised objections, and the FDA later revoked its approval after studies showed no benefits or potential risks.
USA Today
Prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine in the US increased 80-fold between March 2019 and March 2020. US Pres.-elect Donald Trump often touted the drug and even said that he was taking it to prevent a COVID infection during his first term.
USA Today
ABC News

Sources Split

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RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

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PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

It's about time this study was retracted. All it did was endanger lives and send people on a wild goose chase. Many were dosed with the drug, and either saw no effect or were put at risk. Meanwhile, resources were diverted from finding truly effective treatments.

Gizmodo

Narrative B

The period following the outset of the pandemic saw scientists rush to publish papers. Hundreds have been pulled due to methodologies and ethical questions. This proves that blindly following science isn't automatically the right approach.

PJ Media