Authored by David Gortler, Pharm.D via the Brownstone Institute,
Early January of 2024, Americans learned about the publication of an article from Elsevier's Journal of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy overseen by Dr. Danyelle Townsend, a professor at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy's Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences.
As Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Townsend reviewed, approved, and published the article titled: "Deaths induced by compassionate use of hydroxychloroquine during the first COVID-19 wave: An estimate."
The now retracted publication authors were all French or Canadian, with the primary author a pharmacist by the name of Alexiane Pradelle. According to a rudimentary internet search, Dr. Pradelle had never published before. Subsequently, listed authors were degreed as physicians, pharmacists, and/or professors of their respective disciplines. The main, corresponding author, Jean-Christophe Lega, runs the Evaluation and Modeling of Therapeutic Effects team at the University of Lyon.
In addition to being a hypothesized estimate, the article also attacked the legendary safety of HCQ, contradicting centuries of the safety of quinolines as a class.
HCQ, chloroquine and quinine are structurally and pharmaceutically/mechanistically related, sharing the same quinoline structural group. The original iteration of quinine was a very fortunate discovery that dates back to the 1600s (at least) as a medicinal tipple used by Jesuit missionaries in South America. It is naturally found in the bark of the Cinchona tree (also called a "Quina-Quina" tree).
Quinine is still available today both as a prescription drug, for similar indications as HCQ including malaria...and as a Covid-19 treatment.
Quinine is so safe that it may be unique in that the FDA simultaneously permits its use without a prescription, as an ingredient in tonic waters.
HCQ is similarly safe when used appropriately and under medical supervision.
These are pharmacology fundamentals that ought to be known by any pharmacist or physician - let alone to a professor serving as a Journal Editor-in-Chief at a taxpayer-funded state College of Pharmacy.
Did not even one person on her editorial board of over 50 "peer-reviewers" and staff ponder the celebrated and storied history of HCQ (and its predecessors) and how incongruent this study's findings were before choosing to publish data denigrating HCQ safety?
The correct answer to that might actually be: "no"...
The publishing editorial board all seem to be laboratory bench (non-clinical) research scientists, per their biographies. Although the board does promote itself as meeting DEI requirements of being "gender diverse," a more important question might be is if they have the appropriate credentials and experience to review and opine on clinically complex drug safety/epidemiology subject matters in the first place.
Is just anyone now allowed to opine on specialty clinical pharmacology drug safety matters?
In certain journals/news publications, the answer to that question seems to be: "yes"...
Another point of confusion surrounded the interpretation and promotion of this little-known publication by the lay press.
To be exact: there were never "17,000 deaths;" it was always a hypothetical extrapolation of people that could have died, based on "unreliable" (eg, actually, fraudulent) databases on top of the previously mentioned, problematic late-stage RECOVERY-trial-type dosing and timing.
Still, Josh Cohen, a Forbes.com PhD senior healthcare columnist, used this publication to headline an absurdly biased op-ed against HCQ, stating that Trump's HCQ proposal was "Linked To 17,000 Deaths." Forbes' Tufts, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania- trained "healthcare analyst" misrepresented or appeared to not understand the now-retracted study methodology or projections.
Here are some screenshots of headlines referencing non-existent deaths based on a now-retracted study:
Almost immediately following the January 2, 2024 publication, its critical flaws including basic miscalculations among many other deficiencies were brought to the attention of Dr. Townsend by Xavier Azalbert and non-profit BonSens.org attorneys starting on Jan 7, 2024. In fact, a total of 9 communications were sent by the above individuals, but none of them were ever shared as "Letters to The Editor" by Dr. Townsend in good faith to inform readers of specific potential shortcomings, as is otherwise commonly done.
Dr. Townsend seemed to forget that bad medical data and publications can do actual patient harm, and kept legitimate and important study criticisms to herself. Instead of taking responsibility and making a leadership decision, she passed the buck to a Committee on Publication Ethics, delaying the needed retraction.
It appallingly took 234 days (~7 months, from the January 2nd publication to August 26th) for Dr. Townsend's Journal of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy to finally retract the "unreliable" article. But at that point, untold millions around the world had already been (and continue to be) polluted with outrageously incorrect information about non-existent HCQ deaths.
Ethical scientists who believe in truth, transparency, and academic accountability are standing by, waiting for medical and academic justice.
Unethical scientists are also watching this situation unfold, twisting their mustaches, learning about what they could potentially one day get away with.