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Two controversial studies of COVID-19 patients have been retracted after the authors failed to demonstrate that the data were reliable. The first study to be retracted, published last month (May 22) in The Lancet, had found harmful effects associated with the antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, but quickly drew fire after scientists raised questions about the massive database supposedly underpinning it, and about that database’s owner, Surgisphere Corporation.
Today, three authors—all the coauthors on the study except Surgisphere founder and CEO Sapan Desai—contacted The Lancet to retract their report. “They were unable to complete an independent audit of the data underpinning their analysis,” the retraction notice in The Lancet reads. “As a result, they have concluded that they ‘can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources.’”
The three coauthors are Mandeep Mehra, the medical director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center, ...
