But when the Recovery trial came out with a rigorous, definitive answer of ‘No, it doesn’t work,’ everything quieted down,” says Hernandez.

Health care workers gave hospitalized people the drug in the early days of the pandemic (because they didn’t have much else to give), and influential voices like carmaker Elon Musk and President Donald Trump advocated for it as a possible cure.

But by looking at where a study was published, what data it uses, and how it fits into the larger body of scientific research, even the armchair experts among us can start to be more savvy science information consumers.

As a manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine, the company was in the uncomfortable position of distributing a product that was overhyped for an unintended—and, as the FDA concluded, not likely to be effective —use as a Covid-19 treatment or preventative drug.

When The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine pulled an influential pair of Covid-19 papers last Thursday, it was a rare event in scientific publishing.Could these be among “the biggest retractions in modern history,” as one observer described the news about the paper in The Lancet?

—Brian RafteryRobyn Finally Releases 'Honey'It was the Chinese Democracy of Swedish pop: The final season of Girls featured a then-unfinished song called "Honey" from too-long-absent dance phenom Robyn.

(IW 500/1) stood before a New York judge in August and told the state’s attorney general to "put up or shut up" after investigating the company’s public disclosures about climate change, saying it should sue the company or move on.