I think the paper is a satire on "evidence-based medicine" - a framework which insists upon randomized controlled trials as the primary basis for medical decisi

I think the paper is a satire on "evidence-based medicine" - a framework which insists upon randomized controlled trials as the primary basis for medical decisions. Notably this is exactly such a trial, while also absolutely irrelevant to the question of needing a parachute or not (the trial planes were all on the ground at the time of the jumps).