Discredited autopsy study passes peer review

Medium Impact
Misinformation

A discredited study linking COVID-19 vaccines to deaths that was pulled from the Lancet preprint server in June 2023 has been published. Vaccine opponents are celebrating the news, although the paper’s fundamental weaknesses and conclusions remain. 

The fact that the study managed to pass peer review despite its many flaws may be used to bolster anti-vaccine claims about vaccine safety. Messaging may highlight the many fact checks that debunk the study’s methods and conclusions. The study was originally removed from the Lancet preprint server because it violated the site’s screening criteria, and its conclusions were unsupported. Messaging may also emphasize that the study is largely unchanged from when it was pulled from the server last year, raising questions about its credibility. As one fact check noted, “The terms used, study selection, methodology, conflicts of interest, and lack of control over confounding factors remain critical issues affecting the credibility and reliability of the study’s conclusions.” 

Fact-checking Source(s):

AFP, Factico

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