Diyala Nick said:
Infection_Ag11 said:
The responses in this thread are a sad indictment of the science education in our country.
The Gilead data sounds promising
I think the critique (at least mine) is that there are A LOT of academics who deem any data worthless if it lacks a control group. That sort of thinking (dealing only in absolutes) seems very dogmatic.
I get the biases that RCTs mitigate, and I'm all for it. But there is also value in incomplete and inconclusive data as well, especially in the absence of additional evidence.
In a disease with such a low overall mortality, data isnt clinically meaningful without a control group because you have no idea who would have gotten better regardless of what you did (because most will). Anecdotal "evidence" is even worse because it's rife with bias in addition to the previously mentioned issue.
You're going to see this play out with HCQ it appears. Despite all the anecdotes and poorly designed studies (the French study effectively amounted to academic fraud) the controlled trials awaiting peer review that have leaked appear to show no benefit.
Medicine is different than the business world. It's more nuanced and less predictable and there is no such thing as proof.
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