The Two Pandemics.

Luis Alejandro Boccalatte

doi:10.1017/dmp.2020.275

Abstract

This article reflects on the importance and the impact of scientific publications in the midst of a global health crisis. It aims to raise awareness about the responsibility of accepting manuscripts in such sensitive times and is intended to motivate the production of high-quality papers through a critical vision.

Highlights

I n late December 2019, several local health facilities reported clusters of patients with severe pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.[1]
In this context of global uncertainty, we can consider that there are 2 different sides of the same pandemic: first, the spread of SARS CoV-2; second, the “academic pandemic” resulting from an exponential increase in the number of articles published in international medical journals (Figure 1)
Does the increasing amount of publications mean that doctors rely more on the main scientific journals? In the same way that social distancing prevents the spread of the virus, this second pandemic causes practitioners to move away from the unsustainable volume of papers that reach their mailboxes

Summary

Introduction

I n late December 2019, several local health facilities reported clusters of patients with severe pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.[1]. In this context of global uncertainty, we can consider that there are 2 different sides of the same pandemic: first, the spread of SARS CoV-2; second, the “academic pandemic” resulting from an exponential increase in the number of articles published in international medical journals (Figure 1). The pandemic per se, the first one, spread around the world reaching, at the moment of this letter, 11 304 534 confirmed cases, 531 659 deaths, and 6 111 195 recovered patients in 188 countries/regions.

Results

Conclusion