4 ms·

I think this is wrong: Ioannidis's major point is that a lot of studies in medicine are underpowered (a similar issue to the replication crisis in psychology),

I think this is wrong: Ioannidis's major point is that a lot of studies in medicine are underpowered (a similar issue to the replication crisis in psychology), leading to a lot of false positives. But there is no reason to think that this would be the case for a study that finds a vitamin deficiency in the population. We can expect no issues with p-hacking or garden of forking paths just because there is no place for them (the researchers are not looking for crazy-small interactions between vitamin levels and one of many possible outcomes, they're just recording the vitamin concentrations), and we know roughly the right concentrations for those vitamins too. So I think this is misplaced skepticism, you shouldn't really dismiss studies so easily without thinking through the issues first. This would be much more relevant if the research was specifically about some random compound's small effect on Covid-19 without a prior reason to think it would be relevant at all - then the problems would indeed appear.

giardini 6y ago
How kind of you to summarize Ioannidis' studies in a single sentence and then dismiss them based on your undoubtedly highly-educated and data-supported opinions, saving readers the drudgery of clicking a link, browsing a noted paper and possibility gaining some enlightenment and ease-of-mind. Perhaps you should write a study about argumentation?
- stainforth 6y ago
  And yet your tactic was the same in effect - your wall of text utlimately tries to lead us to dismiss this post and any research at all. You want the reader to stop thought.
  - giardini 6y ago
    "And yet your tactic was the same in effect - your wall of text utlimately[sic] tries to lead us to dismiss this post and any research at all. You want the reader to stop thought." Links to an original research article, several supporting but more approachable articles for the everyday reader, and a link to an (excellent) book is a "wall of text" for you? My, my! OTOH there's little doubt you've "stopped thought"!8-)) Perhaps a nap would help.

giardini 6y ago

How kind of you to summarize Ioannidis' studies in a single sentence and then dismiss them based on your undoubtedly highly-educated and data-supported opinions, saving readers the drudgery of clicking a link, browsing a noted paper and possibility gaining some enlightenment and ease-of-mind. Perhaps you should write a study about argumentation?

stainforth 6y ago
And yet your tactic was the same in effect - your wall of text utlimately tries to lead us to dismiss this post and any research at all. You want the reader to stop thought.
- giardini 6y ago
  "And yet your tactic was the same in effect - your wall of text utlimately[sic] tries to lead us to dismiss this post and any research at all. You want the reader to stop thought." Links to an original research article, several supporting but more approachable articles for the everyday reader, and a link to an (excellent) book is a "wall of text" for you? My, my! OTOH there's little doubt you've "stopped thought"!8-)) Perhaps a nap would help.