A very interesting read... And the Atlantic has a reputation for being pretty solid, I think. Not exactly a fringe publication.
I was particularly fascinated by all the stuff about the use and misuse of statistical data - ever since the quantitative research methods class I took in grad school, I've had a certain level of interest in the ways that statistics can be manipulated.
And the circular logic of "We can't do proper tests of this so that we'll know whether or not if it actually works, because it would be unethical to deprive people of something we know works." Gaaaahh! False certainty is a longstanding hot spot of mine. Scientists should really know better! I guess the underlying problem is that science is by and large performed by humans. *sigh*
I'd volunteer for a placebo-controlled study of the flu vaccine, though preferably the seasonal sort, as I had some concerns about the H1N1 vaccine even before reading this. Any time anything gets rushed into production and permitted to bypass a lot of the usual protocols for
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I was particularly fascinated by all the stuff about the use and misuse of statistical data - ever since the quantitative research methods class I took in grad school, I've had a certain level of interest in the ways that statistics can be manipulated.
And the circular logic of "We can't do proper tests of this so that we'll know whether or not if it actually works, because it would be unethical to deprive people of something we know works." Gaaaahh! False certainty is a longstanding hot spot of mine. Scientists should really know better! I guess the underlying problem is that science is by and large performed by humans. *sigh*
I'd volunteer for a placebo-controlled study of the flu vaccine, though preferably the seasonal sort, as I had some concerns about the H1N1 vaccine even before reading this. Any time anything gets rushed into production and permitted to bypass a lot of the usual protocols for ( ... )
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