Several weeks agopublished a report , written by working, credentialed medical researchers (and peer-reviewed by other credentialed scientists according tohead editor Dr. Robert Gary of Tulane University) that speculated a woman described in New Testament scripture as having been miraculously healed by Jesus may have had influenza. Here's the beginning of the article abstract:

"The Bible describes the case of a woman with high fever cured by our Lord Jesus Christ. Based on the information provided by the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, the diagnosis and the possible etiology of the febrile illness is discussed."

The report has been roundly (and appropriately) mocked - Biblical scripture was the only data cited, and as LiveScience's "Bad Science" column writer Benjamin Radford put it,

Had the researchers examined some newly found document, mummified body, or other forensic evidence, that would be one thing. But using the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke in the New King James version of the Bible as the entire data set made "Virology Journal" look like "Mad" magazine or "The Onion."

Other than the likelihood that if the article had been from the Onion the writing would have been snappier, Radford's observation was apt and the Virology Journal article was retracted several days ago, three weeks after being published. In an accompanying statement Robert F. Garry apologized,

"As Editor-in-Chief of 'Virology Journal' I wish to apologize for the publication of the article, which clearly does not provide the type of robust supporting data required for a case report and does not meet the high standards expected of a peer-reviewed scientific journal... The speculations contained within this article clearly would be better expressed outside the confines of a peer-reviewed journal."

National Public Radio's Scott Hensley picked up the flap, as have Fast Company, Nature magazine's blog and Discover magazine, which got perhaps closest to the heart of the matter, in a post titled Retracted Study: Biblical Woman Had Flu, Not Demonic Possession

Assistant Professor of Epidemiology Tara C. Smith, writing at her Aetiology blog was flabbergasted, and Pharyngula blogger and biologist PZ Meyers caustically quipped, in a post titled But what if she had vapors, or an imbalance of humors?,

This paper in Virology Journal has to be seen to be believed.... ...my favorite parts were the bits where the authors noted that Jesus did not take her temperature because the Fahrenheit scale wasn't invented until 1724, and the part where they seriously rule out the possibility that the woman's illness was demonic possession. Another cheer for science!

Critics were correct to go after the Virology Journal story but, as is almost always the case, they missed the larger context, the widespread nature of such demon-haunted beliefs in the modern world, including in America.

Back in June I wrote a post that provided some notable data points on this: