: Until we know more about the coronavirus, it is vital to be wary of ‘fast science’ #IndiaNEWS The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine are among the most influential scientific journals

Until we know more about the coronavirus, it is vital to be wary of ‘fast science’ #IndiaNEWS
The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine are among the most influential scientific journals in the world. Both have recently had to retract studies on the effectiveness of Covid-19 treatments after doubts were raised about the underlying data. The scandal reveals the dangers of “fast science???.In the face of the virus emergency, research standards have been relaxed to encourage faster publication and mistakes become inevitable. This is risky. Ultimately, if expert advice on the pandemic turns out to be wrong, it will have dire consequences for how reliable scientific evidence is treated in other policy areas, such as climate change.The pandemic has become politicised, pitting smug liberals versus reckless conservatives. There’s also a move towards thinking about options in terms of science versus common sense. If we accept this framing, we risk causing people to believe that experts are no better than the rest of us at making predictions and providing explanations that can guide policy.For example, some “lockdown sceptics??? have responded to falling death rates by arguing that the lockdown wasn’t necessary in the first place. Setting aside arguments over to what extent lockdowns saved lives, it is right to worry about the way this has cast aspersion on expertise more generally.But we shouldn’t see the epidemiologists advising governments as having the same standing –...Read more

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