• João Pedro Ferreira, Murray Epstein, and Faiez Zannad.
• Centre d'Investigations Cliniques Plurithématique Inserm 1433, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France; Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire (CHRU) de Nancy, Inserm U1116, Nancy, France; French Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (FCRIN INI-CRCT), Nancy, France. Electronic address: j.ferreira@chru-nancy.fr.
• Am. J. Med. 2021 Feb 1; 134 (2): 166175166-175.

AbstractThe current Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exerted an unprecedented impact across the globe. As a consequence of this overwhelming catastrophe, long-established prevailing medical and scientific paradigms have been disrupted. The response of the scientific community, medical journals, media, and some politicians has been far from ideal. The present manuscript discusses the failure of the scientific enterprise in its initiatives to address the COVID-19 outbreak as a consequence of the disarray attributable to haste and urgency. To enhance conveying our message, this manuscript is organized into 3 interrelated sections: 1) the accelerated pace of publications coupled with a dysfunctional review process; 2) failure of the clinical trial enterprise; 3) propagation of misleading information by the media. In response we propose a template comprising a focus on randomized controlled clinical trials, and an insistence on responsible journal publication, and enumeration of policies to deal with social media-propagated news. We conclude with a reconsideration of the appropriate role of academic medicine and journals.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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