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Animal Ethics Biosafety Human Research Ethics Research Integrity

(Australia) Australian Covid research trials ‘wasteful and misdirected’ – Times Higher Education (John Ross | July 2021)

Posted by Dr Gary Allen in Human Research Ethics on August 2, 2021
Keywords: Australia, Institutional responsibilities, Medical research, Research results, Researcher responsibilities

The Linked Original Item was Posted On July 20, 2021

Artistically stressed Australian flag

Research teams worked separately to investigate similar problems when combined studies might have delivered meaningful results

Australia’s energetic Covid research response has been blighted by waste, with clinical trials undermined by parochialism, poor coordination, privacy constraints and skewed priorities.

Internationally there has been praised for how research has quickly delivered vaccines that are efficacious and safe.  And rightfully so.  This Times Higher Education piece and the Sydney University research it discusses, suggest that the Australian picture isn’t quite as rosy.  It is incredibly important that we learn lessons from this experience.

A review of Covid trials launched in Australia last year has found that many were “underpowered”, enlisting too few participants to generate meaningful results and failing to compensate by recruiting overseas or sharing data.

The findings, published by a University of Sydney team in the Medical Journal of Australia, echo concerns that researchers have ignored sociological aspects of the coronavirus crisis in a rush to unpack Covid’s biological secrets. Experts say that human and government behaviour, which can be far less predictable than the virus, has been implicated in some of the crisis’ most disastrous developments.

Australian Covid research trials ‘wasteful and misdirected’
Research teams worked separately to investigate similar problems when combined studies might have delivered meaningful results

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Related Reading

(UK) Covid 19: How harm reduction advocates and the tobacco industry capitalised on the pandemic to promote nicotine – BMJ Blog (June 2021)

(France) Scientific image sleuth faces legal action for criticizing research papers – Nature (Holly Else | May 2021)

Despite its big COVID moment, science is in crisis – Crickey (Stephen Bartos | August 2020)

(EU) French hydroxychloroquine study has “major methodological shortcomings” and is “fully irresponsible,” says review, but is not being retracted – Retraction Watch (Ivan Oransky | July 2019)

Data show panic and disorganization dominate the study of Covid-19 drugs – STAT (Matthew Herper | July 2020)

Covid-19 studies based on flawed Surgisphere data force medical journals to review processes – The Guardian (Melissa Davey | June 2020)

(France) French hydroxychloroquine-COVID-19 study withdrawn – Retraction Watch (Ivan Oransky | May 2020)

(France) He Was a Science Star. Then He Promoted a Questionable Cure for Covid-19 – New York Times Magazine (Scott Sayare | May 2020)

(Australia) Calls for Australian Defence Force chloroquine COVID-19 drug trial to be halted – ABC News (Grace Tobin | May 2020)

(COVID-19) Underpromise, overdeliver – Science (Editorial – H. Holden Thorp | March 2020)

(Australia) Medical journal fast-tracks free publication of COVID-19 research – ResearchProfessionalNews (Rosslyn Beeby | April 2020)

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