The Decline of the Experimental Paradigm During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Template for the Future

Ferreira, João Pedro; Epstein, Murray; Zannad, Faiez

The current COVID-19 pandemic has exerted an unprecedented impact across the globe. As a consequence of this overwhelming catastrophe, long established prevailing medical and scientific paradigms have been disrupted. The response of the scientific community, medical journals, media and some politicians, has been far from ideal. The present manuscript discusses the failure of the scientific enterprise in its initiatives to address the COVID-19 outbreak, as a consequence of the disarray attributable to haste and urgency. To enhance conveying our message, this manuscript is organized in three interrelated sections: 1) the accelerated pace of publications coupled with a dysfunctional review process; 2) failure of the clinical trial enterprise; 3) propagation of misleading information by the media. In response we propose a template comprising a focus on randomized-controlled clinical trials, and an insistence on responsible journal publication, and enumeration of policies to deal with social media-propagated news. We conclude with a reconsideration of the appropriate role of academic medicine and journals.