  It is shown that the attractive force between ions in a degenerate quantum
plasma, recently predicted by Shukla and Eliasson [Shukla, Eliasson, PRL 108,
165007 (2012), arXiv:1112.5556] using a generalized quantum hydrodynamical
model, is dwarfed by the attractive force due to kinetic effects that cannot be
accounted for in the previous model. This suggests that the problem of charge
shielding in a degenerate quantum plasma should necessarily be a kinetic one,
providing the dominant part of the attractive force.
