4 ms·
The juxtaposition of "meta analysis" and "real-time" is problematic. The point of a meta analysis isn't merely to rapidly aggregate lots of data from multiple
by ajarmst 6y ago
The juxtaposition of "meta analysis" and "real-time" is problematic. The point of a meta analysis isn't merely to rapidly aggregate lots of data from multiple studies. It's also an analysis of the quality and applicability of the studies. The consensus of most (all?) regulatory bodies is that the clinical effectiveness of off-label Ivermectin for CoViD-19 has not been well established. A useful survey of many of the relevant studies can be found at https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/tables/table-2c/ https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/tables/table-.... "Real time" is not particularly compatible with things like peer-review and replication, and that's a big problem.
They also seem to be aggregating a large amount of unpublished data that was not part of a relevant study. That needs to be accompanied with a detailed discussion about why the data (and population) in question provides good evidence. That's also not meta-analysis but original research, requiring independant review and assessment before it could be part of a meta study.
An attempt to rapidly correlate the results of all available studies runs the risk of simply representing an automated version of p-hacking. Aggregating a bunch of low quality studies does not generate a good quality study, especially if (as in this case) many of them generate concerns about the study population selection, lack of controls, and comorbidities.
- codeflow2202 6y agoWhile it's true that this site is putting together every study available, there have been also meta analysis studies which only used a subset of higher quality studies. Here is an example where you can see a plot where only the randomized controlled trials are used https://b3d2650e-e929-4448-a527-4eeb59304c7f.filesusr.com/ugd/593c4f_1b1399cb64514dc4bdcbef0cd15f7878.pdf https://b3d2650e-e929-4448-a527-4eeb59304c7f.filesusr.com/ug... which still show improvements linked to Ivermectin
- ajarmst 6y agoWhether or not Ivermectin turns out to be an effective treatment is irrelevant to the assessment of whether this particular study is good evidence for that or even a good example of a metastudy. Nor, of course, does the existnce of good-quality evidence redeem bad-quality. (I'll take a moment here to point out that none of the major public health authorities (who are basing their opinion on those very studies) think there is yet sufficient evidence to recommend Ivermectin for this use.