As the COVID-19 pandemic is stetting new records in number of documented cases and deaths all over the globe, medical and non-medical journals as well as media are fast-tracking the publication and dissemination of new information about SARS-Cov-2 and COVID-19. The results are unbelievable: 5,740,000,000 records on google by the search term COVID-19.
There are serious questions raised. Many of the journals are in a race to publish more and more articles on COVID-19. As a result the preprints are being published, the review process appears to be compromised, and the data is not being verified before publication in this race to fast-track the publications about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
Some of the publications have been retracted or withdrawn (1-2)
1. Retraction of Two Published Studies Related to COVID-19 From Lancet, NEJM
https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2020/06/04/17/21/retraction-of-two-published-studies-related-to-covid-19-from-lancet-nejm
2. Preprint Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike ...
Do you believe the same and know some examples to share them on this forum.
Dear Prof Yousuf,
Unfortunately, that is the situation that I observed as well. There is also one publication about the effect of BCG vaccination on COVID-19 progression in here:
Article Is Global BCG Vaccination Coverage Relevant To The Progressi...
As far as I understand, fast track does mean speeding up the review process by shortening the review report submission (from 2 weeks to 1 week for instance). It doesn't mean that the quality of the review should be compromised. Alas, that is the thing that seemed to happen.
Thanks Arli Aditya Parikesit, and Mauro Luisetto
Thanks for sharing your views.
