Researchers scared New Yorkers when they claimed there were traces of the bubonic plague on the subway. Recent correction by the authors  suggests real need to worry

Study:

o   A few months ago

o    Weill Cornell Medical College 

o   published in the journal Cell Systems

o   Analyzed the different bacteria found across the New York City subway system

o   Researchers found a number of different organisms from the fragments of DNA they collected

Almost half of these DNA sequences didn’t match any known species. Researchers associated some of these microbes with the bubonic plague and anthrax. Research team initially claimed that the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, was found on the subway. Suggested that they represent normal co-habitants of a shared urban infrastructure that may even be essential to maintaining such an environment.

CDC and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene were quick to dispute the “sensational” and “unfounded” claims made by researchers in the study. In their critique, also published in Cell Systems, public health experts say the “authors’ suggestion that humans and plague bacilli have 'interacted (and potentially evolved)' in NYC is unfounded and without scientific merit.”

Argue that the “deeply flawed work that makes speculative, sensationalist, and headline-grabbing claims actually can detract from the quiet, ongoing, science-based efforts to secure critical infrastructure in NYC and elsewhere.” Research teams points out the in the study the results do not suggest plague or anthrax is prevalent or that NYC residents at risk

Say that it is not a retraction of earlier work, but that it was interpreted improperly

No fault found by the editors or the journal or other scientists in the way the data was gathered and analyzed