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Yes, we are already in Top Ten season again! So, for now, Top Ten Retractions

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Surgisphere: leads the list:

The most spectacular flameouts involved a pair of articles that appeared in two of the world’s most prestigious medical journals. Both The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine were forced to remove articles that relied on data from a questionable firm called Surgisphere, which refused to share its results with coauthors and the editors involved. (The Lancet also retracted and replaced an editorial it had published that had cited the ill-fated paper.) Before it was discredited, the paper in The Lancet had tremendous influence, leading to the suspension of clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine. A third, influential Surgisphere study was taken down from the SSRN server at the request of a coauthor. The withdrawal of the preprint, which was about potential benefits of the antiparasitic drug ivermection, received little fanfare, let alone a retraction notice.

Retraction Watch, “The Top Retractions of 2020” at The Scientist

Okay. Some say the signs were there all along.

One scientist asks, “Who will believe us again?

A better question is, maybe, why?

Comments
Whenever a retraction like this happens I try to post it everywhere I go The reason why is for exactly what you brought up the initial headlines are usually tremendous bullshit and cause incredible waves that hurt a lot of people It’s the only thing that we can do to damage control for the initial murderAaronS1978
December 17, 2020
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Retractions are meaningless, just as the "corrections" in newspapers are meaningless. The only thing that matters is the MURDER created by the initial EVIL headline. MURDER is the sole purpose of journalism and science. After enough people are KILLED by the bad data, appearances can be maintained by a fine-print "correction" on page 37C.polistra
December 16, 2020
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