Two major COVID-19 studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet were retracted shortly after publication. One study concluded that popular blood-pressure drugs were safe for patients with COVID-19. The other paper gave warnings that the anti-malria drug President Trump endores would be dangerous to these patients. Some critics have suggested that the politicization of coronavirus research may have biased the researchers in the latter study who wanted to quickly respond to Trump’s remarks.

Scientists fear that the rush for research on coronavirus is (1) overwhelming the peer review process, (2) opening the door to fraud, and (3) threatening the credibility of respected medical journals.

Complicated studies used to take months to scrutinize and edit, but now peer review may be condensed to as little as 48 hours with critically important studies being published online within 20 days of submission.

The research community, including scientists who donate time as peer reviewers are overwhelmed, and the system is “at capacity” and “at risk of failing” as Dr. Peter Jüni, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto told the Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/health/virus-journals.html