E-Paper
PGIMER doctor again courts controversy over fresh Covid projections
The report claimed that the peak of Covid-19 cases in India has been delayed and may now arrive around mid-November.
An additional professor at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research’s Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health has once again courted controversy for making projections on Covid-19 cases in the country.
The study which appeared on a website that publishes preliminary reports not certified by peer review was authored by Dr Shankar Prinja (first author) and seven others, and purportedly included two scientists of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The report claimed that the peak of Covid-19 cases in India has been delayed and may now arrive around mid-November.
The manuscript also claimed that the study was funded by ICMR and acknowledged the inputs of the members of National Covid Task Force on research methods.
The ICMR, however, tweeted that the manuscript had been written by an author who was not their employee and that first author had admitted the “mistake”. “It is reiterated that ICMR has not funded this study, the paper was neither peer reviewed nor published and that the scientist of ICMR has not contributed to this particular study/manuscript and has also not signed the undertaking,” the medical research body tweeted.
Without naming Dr Shankar Prinja, the tweet added that when questioned, the first author had accepted the mistake and withdrawn the paper. Since there was no direct involvement of ICMR in developing the manuscript, the issue of convenient withdrawal did not arise, they said.
PGI BLAMES MEDIA FOR MISINTERPRETATION
On the other hand, PGIMER has blamed the media for misinterpretation, saying it had led to the withdrawal of the study by the authors. “Dr Prinja is a member of the National Taskforce Operations Research group, duly approved by the director of PGIMER. An exercise was carried out to understand the health system preparedness of the country in view of the Covid-19 pandemic without naming who all were involved in the study,” a response from PGIMER’s public relations office stated.
It added that a pre-print non-peer reviewed version was posted on a website that states any material posted should not be reported in news media as established information to guide clinical practice or policy.
“The media has misinterpreted the report. As a result, the authors have withdrawn from the website,” the response further stated.
PGI DOC NOT NEW TO CONTROVERSIES
This is not the first time, however, that Dr Shankar Prinja has courted controversy with his assessment and projections on Covid-19 cases.
On April 10, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh had claimed that 58% of the country’s population was likely to get infected with coronavirus, while quoting a PGIMER study. He had said that the infections were likely to peak by mid-September.
Later, the institute had issued a press note and clarified that no such study had been carried out, to which the CM’s media advisor Raveen Thukral had said that the report cited by Captain had been authored by Dr Prinja.
The institute had also served a show-cause notice to the doctor.
Dr Prinja could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
