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JOHN WHYTE: Welcome, everyone. I'm Dr. John Whyte, the chief medical officer at WebMD, and you're watching Coronavirus in Context. One of the things that we've seen throughout the pandemic is this rapidly emerging science. And the traditional model is, let's wait until things get published, and then we'll talk more broadly about it. But we don't have the time to do that during literally a pandemic that impacts the world. So what's the role of preprints? Joining me to help explain the pros and cons is my good friend, the editor-in-chief of Medscape, Dr. Eric Topol. Eric, it's great to see you as always.
ERIC TOPOL: Great to be with you, John.
JOHN WHYTE: One thing we've talked about is a success story of the COVID pandemic has been the speed of innovation. And part of innovation in terms of pharmaceuticals, in terms of diagnostic tests is the ability to peer review, to have an outside group of experts look at it and assess it for its validity or its objectivity.
The pandemic, as I referenced in my remarks, hasn't allowed that. So we never really talked about preprints years ago.
