Scientists call for retraction of study that said Covid-19 is mainly airborne

Team Udayavani, Jun 21, 2020, 12:09 PM IST

Over 40 scientists have called for retraction of a study, ‘Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of Covid-19’

The study, which was published last week in the journal PNAS, compared Covid-19 case counts and measures enforced in China’s Wuhan city, Italy, and New York City in the US.

It is said that the study made “extraordinary claims” about routes of transmission and the effectiveness of mask-wearing, among other things.

In the open letter, they claim that the PNAS study had methodological design flaws and the main conclusions of the study are based on the comparison of disease control measures, case count trends within and between Wuhan, Italy, and New York City

It also said that the said the study’s analysis ignored the lag between changes in disease transmission and changes in reported case counts.

Scientists claim, “While masks are almost certainly an effective public health measure for preventing and slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the claims presented in this study are dangerously misleading and lack any basis in evidence”

“Accordingly, we ask that the editorial board of PNAS retract this paper immediately” they added