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ObjectiveTo evaluate whether the COVID-19 experts who appear most frequently in media have high citation impact for their research overall, and for their COVID-19 peer-reviewed publications in particular and to examine the representation of women among such experts.DesignCross-linking of data sets of most highly visible COVID-19 media experts with citation data on the impact of their published work (career-long publication record and COVID-19-specific work).SettingCable news appearance in prime-time programming or overall media appearances.ParticipantsMost highly visible COVID-19 media experts in the USA, Switzerland, Greece and Denmark.InterventionsNone.Outcome measuresCitation data from Scopus along with discipline-specific ranks of overall career-long and COVID-19-specific impact based on a previously validated composite citation indicator.ResultsWe assessed 76 COVID-19 experts who were highly visible in US prime-time cable news, and 50, 12 and 2 highly visible experts in media in Denmark, Greece and Switzerland, respectively. Of those, 23/76, 10/50, 2/12 and 0/2 were among the top 2% of overall citation impact among scientists in the same discipline worldwide. Moreover, 37/76, 15/50, 7/12 and 2/2 had published anything on COVID-19 that was indexed in Scopus as of 30 August 2021. Only 18/76, 6/50, 2/12 and 0/2 of the highly visible COVID-19 media experts were women. 55 scientists in the USA, 5 in Denmark, 64 in Greece and 56 in Switzerland had a higher citation impact for their COVID-19 work than any of the evaluated highly visible media COVID-19 experts in the respective country; 10/55, 2/5, 22/64 and 14/56 of them were women.ConclusionsDespite notable exceptions, there is a worrisome disconnect between COVID-19 claimed media expertise and scholarship. Highly cited women COVID-19 experts are rarely included among highly visible media experts.

Key Points Question Is the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) eighth edition staging of metastatic cutaneous melanoma prognostic in the era of immune checkpoint inhibition? Findings In this cohort study of 357 patients with metastatic cutaneous melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, the AJCC eighth edition M staging showed limited prognostic stratification; however, the overall survival rates among patients with liver metastases and those with elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels were much worse than among patients with metastatic involvement of other organs and those with serum LDH levels in the reference range. The importance of these factors was confirmed in a multi-institutional external validation cohort. Meaning These findings suggest that other biomarkers that are associated with overall survival, such as liver metastases and LDH level, should be considered for emphasis in future staging systems.

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