There have been a number of retractions from the scientific literature recently, but the Virology Journal’s swift (one might say miraculous) withdrawal of a paper on biblical influenza has set the speed record.

The paper, “Influenza or not influenza: Analysis of a case of high fever that happened 2000 years ago in Biblical time” was published on 21 July, rubbished on the blogosphere on 10 August, and retracted the next day by Robert Garry, Virology Journal’s editor-in chief and a virologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In a nutshell, the paper attempted to diagnose the mother-in-law of the apostle Simon Peter, who lay sick in bed before being miraculously healed by Jesus (depicted right). The researchers, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, attempted to diagnose Simon Peter’s in-law based on symptoms described in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Long story short: If it was a bacterial infection, Jesus wouldn’t have been able to heal her so quickly.

Tara Smith’s blog Aetiology became ground zero for the subsequent evisceration of the paper. I won’t reiterate her many very good points here, but be sure to check out the lengthy comment thread, which includes such quips as “Now I know where to send my case report about Prometheus and his hepatitis…”

Within 24 hours, Garry had posted to Smith’s blog apologizing for publishing the paper. In a note on the journal’s website that appears to serve as notice of the retraction, Garry said that the paper was meant as “a bit of relief from the ‘normal’ business of the journal”.

“The speculations contained within this article clearly would be better expressed outside the confines of a peer-reviewed journal,” he added.

Image: Wikipedia