Retracted studies may have damaged public trust in science, top researchers fear

Retractions by two of the world's leading journals could do lasting harm in an environment where many already distrust scientists

Public trust in science may have been shaken by the publication of academic papers based on false data in leading medical journals, according to world-renowned infectious disease doctors and former advisers to the World Health Organization.

The director of Australia's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Professor Sharon Lewin, said she and her colleagues were gobsmacked" by the saga and said it should be a wake-up call" in a global rush to publish studies about Covid-19.