COVID Excess Deaths Paper Retracted Over Misinformation
The journal said the paper misrepresented possible causes of excess mortality and gave too little weight to alternative explanations.
- On Wednesday, BMJ Group retracted a 2024 BMJ Public Health study on COVID-19 excess mortality, citing "misinformation" in its discussion of mortality causes and the "limited nature" of the original work.
- The Netherlands-based Princess Maxima Center found the article "pays disproportionate attention" to vaccination as a cause for mortality and "misleadingly cited literature" supporting its own arguments.
- Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, PhD, noted the paper relied on an earlier study which the authors "re-analyzed badly," fueling widespread criticism that it lent credence to vaccine skepticism.
- Gertjan Kaspers, PhD, and Minke Huibers, PhD, support the retraction but disagree the article contains misinformation, while Saskia Mostert, PhD, and Marcel Hoogland oppose the decision entirely.
- The retraction notice cited "questionable behavior" by Mostert, though it found "no evidence of malicious intent"; BMJ Group editor Helen Macdonald said the case was "complicated" requiring investigation.
29 Articles
29 Articles
COVID Excess Deaths Study Retracted By Journal For Misinformation Weeks After Author's US Senate Testimony On Vaccines
The study drew criticism when it was originally published two years ago around claims that excess COVID-era deaths could be linked to vaccines.
The study, which fed on vaccinosceptic theses, constituted "disinformation", admits the "BMJ Public Health".
This study, published in the journal BMJ Public Health, has been retracted because it contained "misinformation about the possible causes of excess mortality" and was based on only "a limited amount of original work," the BMJ Group explained in a statement. This group publishes BMJ Public Health, a journal specializing in public health. It is separate from the prestigious British Medical Journal, one of the largest medical journals, which share…
The journal "BMJ Public Health" withdraws a controversial study on mortality after the Corona pandemic. The evaluation was mainly used by immunization skeptics.
A study from 2024 aims to show that in the years following the peak of the Corona pandemic, mortality is abnormally high in several regions of the world. For vaccine opponents, the publication is a found eating. Just two years later, the study is withdrawn.
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