3 ms·

Hmm, finally managed to find some criticism of the 2nd link : https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/hcqtrial-com-astroturf-and-disinformation-about-hydroxychloroqui

Hmm, finally managed to find some criticism of the 2nd link : https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/hcqtrial-com-astroturf-and-disinformation-about-hydroxychloroquine-and-covid-19-on-steroids/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/hcqtrial-com-astroturf-and-... Ok, that doesn't look good… (Still, I would have preferred that doctors would be free to decide by themselves which drug to prescribe for a new disease. After all, they have skin in the game !)

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
That's a laudable idea (and to be fair, doctors do make decisions like this all the time), but the trouble is twofold: 1) placebo effects and 2) expectancy effects. Humans are really bad at remembering both successes and failures, we tend to only remember the instances where something worked and forget the times it didn't. Additionally, doctors belief in a treatment will cause them to over-interpret the successes of said treatment, and potentially change their interactions with patients who do and don't get the treatment. Hence we have clinical trials, where the analysis is done by people not involved in the treatment, and neither patients nor practitioners know who got what treatment.