Wuhan nurses’ letter withdrawn by journal
BEIJING/WASHINGTON: British medical journal the Lancet on Thursday retracted a letter from two frontline Chinese nurses in Wuhan who had called for international help after they requested that it be withdrawn because it was not a first-hand account.
In the letter, published in the journal on February 24, the nurses who work at hospitals in the southern province of Guangdong said they had gone to Wuhan to work in fighting the epidemic. They went on to describe the challenges and hardships of working long hours in extreme conditions in Wuhan, and asked for medical workers worldwide to help.
“On February 26, 2020, we were informed by the authors of this correspondence that the account described therein was not a firsthand account, as the authors had claimed, and that they wished to withdraw the piece. We have therefore taken the decision to retract this correspondence,” the Lancet said in an email to HT.
The journal explained that readers had also got in touch with them, questioning the two nurses’ version. “Questions regarding the validity of this correspondence were brought to our attention by a number of readers,” they said.
The journal added: “Every piece of original research published across The Lancet Group is subject to peer-review. However, we also publish a range of additional content, including correspondence, which is not. In these instances, we take the perspectives provided by authors on trust.”
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