Breaking news: A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a #COVID19 treatment has been retracted, following campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. scim.ag/4iR9bQ6 - ThreadSky

science.org • 163 days ago

Breaking news: A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a #COVID19 treatment has been retracted, following campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. https://scim.ag/4iR9bQ6

Comments

realrobsinclair.bsky.social•163 days ago

You mean I had all of those Gin and Tonics for nothing 😂

eastpole.bsky.social•163 days ago

I guess maybe they protected you a bit against malaria... At least up to 1990 or so. And only the tonic part. But I like G&Ts too. 🍸 Strategic stockpile of Bombay Sapphire, or...

nier63.bsky.social•162 days ago

Schweeps tonic

realrobsinclair.bsky.social•162 days ago

#Dubonnet ?

nier63.bsky.social•162 days ago

Fine by me.

asenathmagic.bsky.social•163 days ago

That will make zero difference to the MAGA cult. They’ll merely say the study was withdrawn because ‘they’ didn’t want people to know ‘the truth’ 🙄🙄🙄

johndstanway.bsky.social•163 days ago

Ah, yes wait until it doesn't matter any more, then retract. Bang up job.

ratchetology.bsky.social•163 days ago

there was one debunked study, by one discredited doctor, that claimed that one discontinued ingredient, in one particular vaccine, that he was developing a different version of, now has people convinced that vaccines cause autism...

this retraction will change nothing

raymondkraemer.bsky.social•163 days ago

But Trump is still president-elect.

kbkorb.bsky.social•163 days ago

When your subjects drop dead, just delete that row. That works wonders for effect size.

dsilbizzy.bsky.social•163 days ago

I thought you were kidding. Nope. From the article: “six patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine had been dropped from the study—one of whom had died, and three of whom had transferred to intensive care—which potentially skewed the results in the drug’s favor.” 🤬🤬

kbkorb.bsky.social•163 days ago

Which raises the question, how did that get past peer review?

Oh, yeah, there was no peer review. It must be time to trumpet the results on social media then.

dsilbizzy.bsky.social•163 days ago

I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure that the whole “peer review” is literally the point of the scientific method. Without it, the rest of it falls apart, as witnessed here. (I am not a scientist, but I am married to one)

kbkorb.bsky.social•163 days ago

Well, I'd say there's a lot more to sci method. Science is older than peer review, just as a matter of history. Still, peer review is central to keeping things honest, more or less, in the long run. Assuming we can keep the politicians away.

dsilbizzy.bsky.social•163 days ago

I misspoke. There’s obviously a LOT more to the scientific method, but peer review (essentially the last step) is the one that makes all the rest of it work, by “keeping things honest” as you said.

aschahl.bsky.social•163 days ago

"Small" precision, there was no peer review in that particular case because the editor in chief of the journal at this time was actually one of Raoult's lab member 🙃 they claim that it's been edited by smne else, but at this time the whole review process from submission to publication took 1 day 🙃

anotherdaphne.bsky.social•163 days ago

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

amimigdalia.bsky.social•162 days ago

Isn’t that a little bit too late!

This crap is Trump’s version of scientific research that can cause a lot of harm.

God help us all in the next few years!

404apathy.bsky.social•163 days ago

Well now, I'm sure all the MAGA will throw their signs away, take off their gold sneakers, set right their wardrobe and mask up now.

Right?

Right?

wowbaggert.bsky.social•163 days ago

I'm glad it's been retracted but the damage has long since been done.

finnanhaddie.bsky.social•163 days ago

This retraction will matter about as much as the retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s article linking autism to vaccines

scrabbyone.bsky.social•163 days ago

📌

punishedjeff.bsky.social•163 days ago

Good thing the guy who treats this study as canon is going to be running the fucking fda

erinkpgh.bsky.social•163 days ago

Well at least we’ll finally get to the bottom of the (completely disproven) vaccine-autism connection.

captainfossil.bsky.social•163 days ago

📌

maponds.bsky.social•163 days ago

📌

lonnibesancon.bsky.social•163 days ago

More on this here also: https://bsky.app/profile/lonnibesancon.bsky.social/post/3ldilubtwde2d

And thanks @science.org for covering it!

haywarmi.bsky.social•163 days ago

No shit. But 30 years from now people will still be using it as a proof of a govt. conspiracy.

lizzie-in-ca.bsky.social•163 days ago

No doubt.

stanvanpelt.bsky.social•163 days ago

📌

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

How much damage has this done in the years since 2020?

The practice of shielding influential colleagues from criticism as a top priority - above research integrity, above harm to patients - is a huge and deadly problem in clinical research, and risks destroying public confidence in science.

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

With AI increasingly being used to spit out junk papers for profit and CV padding, the value of a paper as a countable bean to show science Accomplished Something is rapidly going to zero.

The only way public confidence in science is retained is if we walk the walk on rigour and integrity,...

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

...and that means enforcing basic standards on these impactful clinical journals as well.

We as scientists cannot afford to tolerate institutional medical politics dressing up as science, telling the public it represents us, and then playing games to protect cosplay science from accountability.

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

That means all of us who take science seriously need to get much more directly involved in dismantling poor-quality, pseudoscientific studies - at the technical level, but also in forcing journals to act in a timely manner instead of burying criticisms. The situation is far worse than is recognized.

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

Every junk paper, systematic review, or piece of medical guidance protected from criticism by influential journals or institutions is 👉an assertion that anything can be science if the right people say it is👈.

If we allow that to be true, then "science" has zero value - and we're all screwed.

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•152 days ago

For instance:
https://bsky.app/profile/mark-ungrin.bsky.social/post/3led4mor5j22j

denbysister.bsky.social•163 days ago

How much $$ did these scientists make or the Pharma co's?

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

Financial COIs are important, but it's also essential to consider non-financial COIs. Reputation, influence, covering up past errors, CV inflation etc can be just as powerful, and the people affected by them often get away with pretending they don't exist by interpreting COIs as only monetary.

denbysister.bsky.social•163 days ago

Thank you, Mark. Now that I understand what COI's mean, this makes sense.

denbysister.bsky.social•163 days ago

What are COI's - Certificates of Insurance?

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•163 days ago

Conflicts of interest.

denbysister.bsky.social•163 days ago

Aaaah! Thank you so much!

godhatesyeast.bsky.social•163 days ago

isanthropia.bsky.social•163 days ago

I think the subhead of the article is more accurate: the paper was retracted on scientific and ethical grounds - the “campaigning” and “alleged” wording positions it more as caving to a witch hunt instead of doing the right thing in response to the mistaken publication of fraudulent research.

myrna-lee-59.bsky.social•163 days ago

another SHOCKING LIE EXPOSED.

Wasn't Rudy taking that every day?
Someone let him know it's OK to stop taking it.

komadori.bsky.social•162 days ago

RFK Jr. should be smacked with a rolled-up copy of the 2020 paper until he can tell the difference between vaccine science and bad-faith conspiracy memes.

adavelikeanyother.bsky.social•163 days ago

Like, it matters now? The psyence of that fraudulent work is forever baked into the official brownie recipes of the GOP, Brain Worms Anonymous, antivaxers throughout The Realm, and the Iron Lungs Are Forever (ILAF) Society.

proudlondoner05.bsky.social•163 days ago

Reminds me of when I was at uni in the early 00s. We were given the Andrew Wakefield paper on vaccines and autism to critique as part of our medical ethics course. We were first year students and we ripped it to shreds. I don’t think the people making these “mistakes” understand the impact.

kenhes.bsky.social•162 days ago

The lie spread faster than covid.

keeshkabonham.bsky.social•162 days ago

📌

coloradowildflower.bsky.social•163 days ago

Ethical regulations? Those actually exist?

recursiverealms.com•163 days ago

baszkom.bsky.social•163 days ago

PACE trial next please.

robareowl.bsky.social•163 days ago

I remember being appalled at this paper when it was released and I can’t believe it took this long to be retracted.

squee22.bsky.social•163 days ago

Took you long enough

insiderthre.at•163 days ago

Colonel Sanders ass

tubapeter.bsky.social•163 days ago

If you can't trust a guy in a labcoat who's nowhere near a lab, who can you trust?

mkhochb.bsky.social•163 days ago

Ad hominem is perfectly valid here, RE the senior author

kwh561.bsky.social•162 days ago

This should not have taken so long, I literally called out most of these flaws in his paper on the bird site right after publication

nobody listens to me

kwh561.bsky.social•162 days ago

receipts:

https://x.com/kwh561/status/1240828616864391169

https://x.com/kwh561/status/1241445699725807620

https://x.com/kwh561/status/1244402981753282562

ambernoel.bsky.social•163 days ago

The article leaves out how lupus patients who rely upon the drug as a first line treatment had to suddenly fight for access to hydroxychloroquine.

I’m gonna stay mad about this.

mikejaydavies.me•163 days ago

We were proactive and ringfenced like 2 years worth of supply for our rheum patients 🫶

matthewdhealy.bsky.social•162 days ago

Yeah, lupus patients NEEDED HCQ and for a while couldn't get it because people were using it for COVID.

matthewdhealy.bsky.social•163 days ago

I sympathize but the syllogism Something Must Be Done, X Is Something, Therefore X Must Be Done is fallacious. The ONLY good studies finding benefits from HCQ or IVM in COVID-19 patients were done in places where parasitic worms are endemic.

matthewdhealy.bsky.social•163 days ago

IF you have both worms and a virus then a drug that kills worms is a good thing. But if you don't have worms it doesn't do anything for the virus. This has been studied VERY thoroughly.

lizzieohreally.bsky.social•163 days ago

oh yeah. Sjogren's here. big mad.

ben-bessman.bsky.social•163 days ago

As we all should!

catbo55.bsky.social•159 days ago

The moment I heard hydroxy chloroquine mentioned, I checked my prescriptions and luckily refilled ahead of the flood of needless prescriptions. My 20+ years of taking for Rheumatoid Arthritis made me very familiar with the drug. I too, will never forget that time and problems he caused.

windbarb.bsky.social•163 days ago

YES. My rheumatologist was proactive, plus the timing of my refills was fortunate, but I absolutely did not need the stress of it all.

ambernoel.bsky.social•163 days ago

📌

zogzac.bsky.social•163 days ago

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2024/01/07/trump-promoted-hydroxychloroquine-to-treat-covid-19-a-drug-now-linked-to-17000-deaths/?origin=serp_auto

surpluscornbread.bsky.social•163 days ago

That study got retracted too.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S075333222301853X

Seems like a lot of bad science got published with COVID-19, possibly in part because the need for answers around the pandemic led to rushed research and people desperate for studies to guide them.

zogzac.bsky.social•163 days ago

Yes, as the original post states .

surpluscornbread.bsky.social•163 days ago

I think you might be mixing up studies. BOTH the studies that said hydroxychloroquine could help against COVID AND the study referenced by your Forbes article got retracted.

zogzac.bsky.social•163 days ago

Gotcha, thanks. Actually, my main reason for adding that was I recall that Trump was promoting the use of hydroxychoroquine at the time.

jldupont.bsky.social•163 days ago

grimjim.bsky.social•163 days ago

The harsh side effects of HCQ probably explains why it failed as a real treatment despite showing promise in vitro against SARS-CoV-2, doing more damage than it prevented. India and Peru also tried out HCQ, unsuccessfully.

fianchini-lf.bsky.social•159 days ago

I was adminstered hydroxichloroquine in ICU at starting of the pandemic. In Italy it was authorized (& tested on covid patients) till end of may 2020.
AFAIK it was stopped cause it's cardio-toxic and harmful to nervous system. A study highlighted higher deaths in Italy could be related to its usage

neutralgraymatter.bsky.social•163 days ago

Let's take a look at all prior vaccine approvals with the same level of scrutiny. Could be interesting . . .

ehnkejr.bsky.social•163 days ago

Não que precisasse, mas tá aí @medoedeliriobr.bsky.social

andremayer.bsky.social•163 days ago

I’m no expert, but I read that paper and it made no sense — appeared to be a case where the researcher tried something that didn’t work, but went ahead and published.

wantshoes7.bsky.social•163 days ago

I read it when it came out too. It should never have been published. It was entirely anecdotal. Problem was there was so much panic without solid info or treatment for CoVid. People latched on to anything they could find. It was the original CoVid FAFO.

andremayer.bsky.social•163 days ago

I think he actually he had an idea: Let’s hit it with two drugs at once, like AIDS! But that didn’t work, so there wasn’t even an anecdote.

paulriz504.bsky.social•163 days ago

Piece of shit got people killed who never took the vaccine thinking they could be treated with this snake oil.

He may not face justice in life but there is a special place in hell reserved for him.

diogeneslamp.bsky.social•163 days ago

They weren't only killed because they didn't take the vaccine (which didn't exist yet.) They were killed directly by hydroxychloroquine which has well known cardiac side effects

realitycheckmarker.bsky.social•163 days ago

Average muggles don't comprehend how much damage POTUS45 did to the scientific community or have the faintest glimmer of understanding how POTUS47 is going to set the scientific community back decades.
https://bsky.app/profile/realitycheckmarker.bsky.social/post/3lcxumtg3k22e

chriskirkasp.bsky.social•163 days ago

Shock! As clearly unadulterated horseshit gets reclassified as unadulterated horseshit.

sethkroll.bsky.social•163 days ago

In August 2020, a collaboration of scientists published work showing that hydroxychloroquine does not inhibit covid. Glad this other paper was finally redacted. https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/hydroxychloroquine-does-not-inhibit-sars-cov-2-infection-in-preclinical-models/

cmtroy205.bsky.social•163 days ago

📌

miazz.bsky.social•163 days ago

cc @raskin.house.gov @repjasmine.bsky.social @aoc.bsky.social @congressmancohen.bsky.social

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply