No, it was withdrawn by the publisher, because the authors were liars. That would reflect badly on the publisher and publication, regardless of the content, and negates the value of the research, because if they can’t see what other people regard as a conflict of interest, what else are they blind to? The authors still want to publish, and have offered all their data for examination, but I don’t think anybody is interested: it was already a difficult field, and stuff like this makes it even more difficult to get independent funding.
If you want to draw parallels, the parallel would be all that turn-of-the-century climate-change stuff that should have been withdrawn, because of the damage it did to the whole field, with people not believing anything that was published.
Or research on tissue rejection and the immune system: after some bad publicity, the whole field went into remission for 10~15 years.
There are numerous such prejudices within India which is an extremely diverse society. But one learns to let go such prejudices and live in harmony with other cultures. But apparently the Thais have been holding on to theirs with determination “for millennia”. This is so sad.
“Welcome to Bali, the tropical paradise with some dark secrets.”
You don’t like/agree with the word baffling here. OK.
Earlier, it was baffling that India was doing so well. It was said that mask wearing made the difference. They claimed victory and then dropped the requirements for several big events. Without enough vaccines, things can change very quickly.
That might have contributed to the surge, but not much is being said of the “double mutant” strain of the virus found in India. (Some media outlets are terming it “triple-mutant”; don’t know what that means and if it refers to the same strain.) Also how are superspreader events held to blame? There is certainly not enough data to prove that the Hindu festivals or the thousands of Ramadaan iftaar parties happening all over India are to blame for this surge.
Well, by default a superspreader event consists of large crowds that aren’t using masks or keeping a safe distance from each other.
there may already have been crowd immunity in India for the original virus and the newer versions spread quickly. Hard to say.
It’s not really relevant beyond the need to be as proactive as possible when the numbers turn against a region. We’ve seen that all over the world. Maybe the WHO should be proactive in nudging governments if they’re slow to react and help cue up the resources needed for a faster response.
I don’t disagree. The only difference is that I am more credulous that people who ignored that level of conflict of interest would have accidentally made mistakes instead of doing so on purpose. I was assuming some level of willful blindness, but you’re right that it could just be ignorance.
That said, this post seems weird to me compared to your other post. In it, you were saying it was odd that the study was retracted. But, in this post, you seem to know exactly why it was retracted. It seems like my original reply was entirely unnecessary.
Interesting how a pediatrician thought a vaccine made her invincible. It’s pretty well known that you can get the flu even if you’ve had a flu shot, even for the type of flu in the flu shot. The doctor in the article was taking care of her two children sick with Covid. The effectiveness rate of the vaccine is not 100%. Even if it somehow were, she was also caring for her father who had cancer. Luckily, he didn’t get it, but she didn’t give any thought to her transmitting it either.
I was talking to a coworker in India today, and the news there is devastating. It’s one thing to read the numbers in the news, but it’s very different hearing it personally from someone going through it.
Bangalore just entered another 15-day shutdown, which essentially means you don’t leave your home at all. There are covid-specific crematoriums, and they all have ambulances parked outside waiting for space to burn the bodies. For the religions that don’t allow cremation, the government has acquired farmland for burials because the cemeteries are full. Hospitals beds are completely full, and patients are sleeping outside in cots. He has 6 covid-positive people in his building that he knows of, and he shares a wall with one of them. It’s a terrifying situation.
