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Race is a proxy measure that weakly correlates with genetic history. Seems easier to just use the direct measure which can be determined with high accuracy (id
by dekhn 4y ago
Race is a proxy measure that weakly correlates with genetic history. Seems easier to just use the direct measure which can be determined with high accuracy (identity by descent through DNA sequencing).
I think the problem is that race is so deeply embedded in people's minds that even scientists who try to be objective struggle to disentangle theories from their preconcieved notions.
- dpkirchner 4y agoIt's probably not all that easy to sequence the DNA of study participants when they number in the thousands. Although I guess you only have to do it once per person.
- dekhn 4y agoIt's trivially easy and cheap to determine genetic history by dna sequenceing; it doesn't require sequencing the whole genome, just a tiny bit of it. 23&Me does it with their tiny little exome test.
- dpkirchner 4y agoAt $100 each, adding $1M to a small study of only 10000. And biasing the results by only including people willing to hand over their DNA. I'm not sure the net result will be improved science.
- dekhn 4y agoYou're not adding anything to this debate- studies already do this (and budget for it). Lightweight genetic testing like this is far cheaper in bulk and the scientists and doctors running the study are likely going ot want that data, so I don't see any problem there. As for bias and people not consenting to hand over their DNA: this is not a scientific problem, it's a social one.