| In March 2020, just days after Covid-19 had been declared a pandemic and doctors were desperately seeking treatment for the deadly infection, a small trial showing the benefits of combining the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine with an antibiotic made huge headlines. Last week, that study was formally retracted. Elsevier, which owns the journal that published the study, said it did so because of questions about "the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants, as well as concerns raised by three of the authors themselves regarding the article's methodology and conclusions." The retraction didn't make anywhere near the same splash that the original news did. And therein lies a cautionary tale. Following publication of the 2020 study, President Donald Trump posted on social media that the drug combo had "a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine." The US Food and Drug Administration quickly issued an emergency use authorization to allow hydroxychloroquine to be used for certain hospitalized patients with Covid. Hospitals stockpiled the drug anticipating a surge in demand. Yet even then, many questioned the study that prompted the frenzy. "This miracle cure is based on six subjects, which does not give me a great deal of confidence," Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University, said of hydroxychloroquine. "This study is promising, provocative and worth following-up on, but it is nothing more than that." Later the same month, a small Chinese study found that hydroxychloroquine was no more effective than conventional care. By June 2020, the FDA reversed course and withdrew its emergency authorization after determining the drugs were unlikely to work against the coronavirus and could have dangerous side effects. In March 2021, the World Health Organization agreed. Meanwhile, criticisms of the original paper's lead author and its methodology grew. None of this stopped die-hard hydroxychloroquine fans. In October of this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, posted that he would fire FDA employees for the "aggressive suppression" of various unproven products including hydroxychloroquine. With fresh public health worries looming, it's worth remembering that real science is an accumulation of facts. First reports aren't the final word. — Antonia Mufarech | 
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