Last month, Coda Story’s Gautama Mehta reported on how scientists’ rush to publish Covid-19 research without submitting it for rigorous peer review was fueling disinformation. Now, we’re following up to see how the story has developed.

As scientists fast track their research to respond to Covid-19 as it continues to ravage the globe, concerns have been raised about a decline in scientific standards. Our story reported that unvetted studies posted to online “pre-print servers” were fueling fake news stories about the coronavirus. But one month on, concerns are being raised that even studies published in reputable journals are not being held to the usual scientific standard.

On Thursday, dozens of scientists from some of the world’s leading medical institutions wrote a joint letter calling on a prestigious science journal to retract a Covid-19 paper from a Nobel Prize–winning chemist. 

The study in question, led by chemist Mario Molina, was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). It found that the use of facemasks diminished the role of social distancing, and that lockdown measures had not had the same effect as masks on limiting the spread of coronavirus. As Molina is a member of the Academy, he was allowed to fast-track the study through the peer review process and select independent reviewers himself. PNAS has been criticized in the past for this practice, which renders the review process less rigorous than it would otherwise be.