Journal Information
Vol. 29. Issue 3.
Pages 267-268 (May - June 2023)
Share
Share
Download PDF
More article options
Visits
1558
Vol. 29. Issue 3.
Pages 267-268 (May - June 2023)
Letter to the Editor
Full text access
Learning with the COVID-19 pandemic mistakes: Facing the progression of the first cases of Monkeypox in Brazil. Authors' reply
Visits
1558
M.N. Boschieroa,1, C.V.C. Palamima,b,1, F.A.L. Marsona,b,1,
Corresponding author
fernando.marson@usf.edu.br
fernandolimamarson@hotmail.com

Corresponding author at: São Francisco University; Post graduate Program in Health Science; Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Tumor Biology and Bioactive Compounds and Laboratory of Human and Medical Genetics. Avenida São Francisco de Assis, 218. Jardim São José, Bragança Paulista, São Paulo, 12916-900, Brazil.
a Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Tumor Biology and Bioactive Compounds, São Francisco University, Bragança Paulista, SP, Brazil
b Laboratory of Human and Medical Genetics, São Francisco University, Bragança Paulista, SP, Brazil
This item has received
Article information
Full Text
Bibliography
Download PDF
Statistics
Full Text

Dear Editor, we read with enthusiasm the correspondence by Mungmunpuntipantip and Wiwanitkit,1 in which the authors added a valuable discussion to our published paper.2

Apart from the public health policies we discussed in our paper, our colleagues also highlighted the importance of normal public health measures (e.g., airport screening) and, especially, the lack of expertise and clinical management of such a new viral disease. They also pointed out that scientists might have overconfidence in their abilities to treat/control new diseases such as Monkeypox,3 mainly in developing countries, such as Thailand, India, and Brazil which can compromise the disease dispersion causing a possible new pandemic.

On top of proper public health policies, scientists and health professionals should not repeat the same mistakes made during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. Also, it is important to optimize scientific knowledge with caution, enabling the emergence of high-quality science. The first step to do that is to improve the inclusion of science in professional qualifications and to publish high-quality studies rather than just achieving a higher F-impact or improving our own H-index.4 It was noteworthy how COVID-19 papers were reviewed faster and how pre-print repositories have grown during the COVID-19 pandemic,5 which may even characterize a “paperdemic”.6,7 Unfortunately, the higher number of published papers was not followed by adequate scientific scrutiny, which translated into a higher retraction rate from COVID-19 papers.7 Although we do need scientific research regarding Monkeypox, it is our duty, as scientists, not to sacrifice scientific method and quality to the anxiety for publication. As one might say “we need less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons”.8

Funding

[MNB] Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo, Brazil; #2022/05810-7).

Ethics approval

The data used in our study were made publicly available, not containing consent-free personal data since it does not present risks to the research participants.

Consent to participate

Not required.

Consent for publication

The authors have approved the manuscript and agreed with the submission.

Data and material availability

We accessed the complete data in Our World in Data (https://ourworldindata.org/).

Code availability

Not required.

Authors’ contributions

Not applicable.

References
[1]
R. Mungmunpuntipantip, V. Wiwanitkit.
COVID-19 pandemic mistakes and monkeypox: correspondence.
Pulmonology, This issue (2022),
[2]
MN. Boschiero, CVC. Palamim, FAL. Marson.
Learning with the COVID-19 pandemic mistakes: facing the progression of the first cases of Monkeypox in Brazil.
[3]
W. Sriwijitalai, V. Wiwanitkit.
Exaggerated information and COVID-19 outbreak.
Eur J Clin Investig, 50 (2020), pp. e13226
[4]
N. Ambrosino, F. Pacini.
Publish or perish? Perish to publish? (Unrequested advices to young researchers).
Pulmonology, 28 (2022), pp. 327-329
[5]
H. Else.
How a torrent of COVID science changed research publishing — in seven charts.
[6]
RJ. Dinis-Oliveira.
COVID-19 research: pandemic versus “paperdemic”, integrity, values and risks of the “speed science.
Forensic Sci Res, 5 (2020), pp. 174-187
[7]
MN. Boschiero, TA. Carvalho, L. Marson FA de.
Retraction in the era of COVID-19 and its influence on evidence-based medicine: is science in jeopardy?.
Pulmonology, 27 (2021), pp. 97-106
[8]
DG Altman.
The scandal of poor medical research.
BMJ, 308 (1994), pp. 283-284

These authors contributed equally to this study.

Copyright © 2022. Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia
Pulmonology
Article options
Tools

Are you a health professional able to prescribe or dispense drugs?