Research Publication Retractions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

On May 22, 2020, a paper was published in the Lancet by researchers from Surgisphere Corporation. Titled 'Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis', it analyzed data of hospitalized COVID-19 patients from a registry that included 671 hospitals across 6 continents. Because of this significant coverage, 96,032 patients met the study's inclusion criteria - hospitalized with COVID-19 between Dec 2019 and April 2020, and treated with a chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine regimen (14, 188) or in the control no treatment group (81,144). The study found that all treatment regimens examined (hydroxychloroquine alone or with macrolide, chloroquine alone or with macrolide) was independently associated with increased death in hospital. The study noted that the use of early-treatment regimens including hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine since March 2020 had thus far been based on small, low-powered studies. The Surgisphere study was the first large multi-national registry-based study to show a significant negative effect of early-treatment regimens using hydroxychloroquine.

The response to the study was swift. In a day or two, major public health authorities, including the World Health Organization ordered clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine to cease. Several nations ordered its use to stop.