Cochrane editors hit back at criticisms of HPV vaccine review

An article in a BMJ journal that criticised a Cochrane review on human papillomavirus vaccine made allegations that were not warranted and gave an inaccurate and sensationalised report of the review’s findings, say Cochrane’s two top editors.

David Tovey, editor in chief, and his deputy, Karla Soares-Weiser, have called on BMJ to review whether the quality assurance processes at BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine were appropriately fulfilled and whether the conclusions of the article were “justified and proportionate.”

The sharp response follows an analysis of the claims made by the three authors—two of them experienced Cochrane researchers—in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.1 Lars Jørgensen and Peter Gøtzsche, from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, together with Tom Jefferson of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford, said that the Cochrane HPV vaccine review had omitted relevant trials and was influenced by reporting bias and biased trial designs.

When the …