3 ms·

I don't know how you can take this data seriously. It's comparing population Vitamin D levels vs. population COVID mortality for n = 12 countries. Are studies

I don't know how you can take this data seriously. It's comparing population Vitamin D levels vs. population COVID mortality for n = 12 countries. Are studies like this done to justify an actual Vitamin D study? They need to take a sample of confirmed COVID patients and test their Vitamin D levels individually.

blumomo 6y ago
You don’t always need a big n to make causal conclusions. Do you know the story about the king who gets served a soup? Because he’s frightened that the soup might be poisoned, he gives it to his food tester first because the king reasons like this: „If my food tester (n=1) doesn’t die, then I probably won’t die, too, when I eat the soup“. Many great philosophers have argued, that people should use their common sense instead of requesting big tests. Therefore no big n‘s are needed. Start thinking.
- jwilber 6y ago
  ??? The Kong’s conclusion wasn’t causal with any statistical certainty (which is what the above is arguing). It was anecdotal. Maybe the poison doesn’t work for carriers of certain genes. Maybe it’s temperature reactive. Maybe it’ll take weeks to kill. Just because the King observes something do not make his causal conclusions from that observation valid. Adequate sample-sized statistics aim to bridge that gap.
  - natalyarostova 6y ago
    > The Kong’s conclusion wasn’t causal with any statistical certainty (which is what the above is arguing). It was anecdotal. There ain't no such thing as statistical certainty my friend.
  - gridlockd 6y ago
    http://gunshowcomic.com/831 http://gunshowcomic.com/831
  - tinus_hn 6y ago
    Well that settles it. Better keep on doing nothing!
    - Fjolsvith 6y ago
      (n=0)
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  it must suck to be the king, waiting a couple hours to a day to make sure the food tester doesn't die of a slow acting poison before eating oneself. Just thinking.
- squnch 6y ago
  This King story is apropos of... nothing.
djsumdog 6y ago
I saw another one like this recently: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v... Started reading it and it has an incredibly small sample size. I agree, all these studies are weak. People are rushing to publish any crap they can right now.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Another study from Switzerland: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32397511 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32397511 "5-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations Are Lower in Patients with Positive PCR for SARS-CoV-2"

blumomo 6y ago

You don’t always need a big n to make causal conclusions. Do you know the story about the king who gets served a soup? Because he’s frightened that the soup might be poisoned, he gives it to his food tester first because the king reasons like this: „If my food tester (n=1) doesn’t die, then I probably won’t die, too, when I eat the soup“. Many great philosophers have argued, that people should use their common sense instead of requesting big tests. Therefore no big n‘s are needed. Start thinking.

jwilber 6y ago
??? The Kong’s conclusion wasn’t causal with any statistical certainty (which is what the above is arguing). It was anecdotal. Maybe the poison doesn’t work for carriers of certain genes. Maybe it’s temperature reactive. Maybe it’ll take weeks to kill. Just because the King observes something do not make his causal conclusions from that observation valid. Adequate sample-sized statistics aim to bridge that gap.
- natalyarostova 6y ago
  > The Kong’s conclusion wasn’t causal with any statistical certainty (which is what the above is arguing). It was anecdotal. There ain't no such thing as statistical certainty my friend.
- gridlockd 6y ago
  http://gunshowcomic.com/831 http://gunshowcomic.com/831
- tinus_hn 6y ago
  Well that settles it. Better keep on doing nothing!
  - Fjolsvith 6y ago
    (n=0)
bryanrasmussen 6y ago
it must suck to be the king, waiting a couple hours to a day to make sure the food tester doesn't die of a slow acting poison before eating oneself. Just thinking.
squnch 6y ago
This King story is apropos of... nothing.

djsumdog 6y ago

I saw another one like this recently: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v... Started reading it and it has an incredibly small sample size. I agree, all these studies are weak. People are rushing to publish any crap they can right now.

chrisco255 6y ago
Another study from Switzerland: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32397511 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32397511 "5-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations Are Lower in Patients with Positive PCR for SARS-CoV-2"