High-profile coronavirus retractions raise concerns about data oversight

High-profile coronavirus retractions raise concerns about data oversight

Hope wanes for hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine does not help people survive COVID-19, according to results that have not yet been peer-reviewed. The findings come from the Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial, which is assessing six different medications for treating the disease. Almost 4,700 people hospitalized with COVID-19 were randomly assigned either to take hydroxychloroquine or to a control group. Trial leaders say there was no benefit in terms of lifespan or recovery time. That arm of the trial has been stopped. The malaria drug has been bedevilled with hype, mixed findings about its efficacy against the coronavirus and a spate of retractions of papers that called its safety into question. “This is a hugely important finding that will likely end use of the drug in hospitalized COVID patients,” says physician and medical-policy researcher Walid Gellad — though it is still an open question whether the medicine might work earlier in the disease.
STAT news | 6 min read
Reference: University of Oxford press release