Significant amount of Covid research is of ‘inadequate quality’

Pressure on scientists causing hasty work and shortcuts, warns network of science and medical academies

The pressure of the pandemic has led to a proliferation of low-quality research on Covid-19, with limited oversight leading to poorly designed trials from sometimes inexpert teams, according to a global network of science, engineering and medical academies.

The InterAcademy Partnership—which counts the national science academies of the US, Australia, China and the UK among its members—warned on 10 May that “a significant amount of Covid-19 research has been of inadequate quality for guiding clinical and public health decisions and tended to amplify deficiencies that were already present in the research environment”.