уебки
FT, I guess, is trying to "help" by misrepresenting research with a deliberately scary title:
Brain disorders affect 1 in 3 Covid survivors, large UK study shows
https://www.ft.com/content/beb407c0-03a3-4aae-ba4b-7f66390d7409?commentID=233abee7-e811-4c4a-96bf-6aeeb5355a49
actual article is here (free to read) http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00084-5/fulltext
well... where can i begin
1. a reasonable person reading this headline would interpret it "if you get COVID, there is 33% chance you will get a brain disorder". this is a lie. and the article they cite does not suggest that.
2. article is based on people in a medical database TriNetX. i could not figure out exactly what it is, but it seems to collect some data from hospitals and GPs (not clear if it includes all patients or a sample). already this part means that if you had symptoms of COVID, did not see your GP for it, were not hospitalised - you are not in this study. i find it troubling the Lancet article is not very clear on this point.
3. lets move to scary 33% number. here is the table it is based on:
33% come from "any outome" (row next to last) - all patients (1st column with numbers).
Ok. this says that of all patients in the sample (see point 2 above), about 34% had at least one "outcome" in 6 months from infection.
now have a look at the actual "outcomes"....
24% is "mood, anxiety etc disorder"
17% anxiety disorder
14% mood disorder
5% insomnia
these are not that surprising, given how bad COVID can be and how long symptoms can last. but these are scarily called "Brain disorders" by FT.
also if you look at "first outcome" rows (i.e. people who never had this before) - percentages are much much lower ("any" goes down to 13%).
and of course the "any" number of 33% is mostly driven by these mood, anxiety and insomnia "outcomes" (all others, more serious things are much much rarer).
and again, most people if they survived Covid by just staying at home will not be in this research.
i do think COVID is a serious, unpredictable and often deadly illness and it is important to vaccinate people to stop it. and i will get my vaccine when i get it. but misrepresenting medical research to scare people into it is fucking weak, man.
Brain disorders affect 1 in 3 Covid survivors, large UK study shows
https://www.ft.com/content/beb407c0-03a3-4aae-ba4b-7f66390d7409?commentID=233abee7-e811-4c4a-96bf-6aeeb5355a49
actual article is here (free to read) http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00084-5/fulltext
well... where can i begin
1. a reasonable person reading this headline would interpret it "if you get COVID, there is 33% chance you will get a brain disorder". this is a lie. and the article they cite does not suggest that.
2. article is based on people in a medical database TriNetX. i could not figure out exactly what it is, but it seems to collect some data from hospitals and GPs (not clear if it includes all patients or a sample). already this part means that if you had symptoms of COVID, did not see your GP for it, were not hospitalised - you are not in this study. i find it troubling the Lancet article is not very clear on this point.
3. lets move to scary 33% number. here is the table it is based on:
33% come from "any outome" (row next to last) - all patients (1st column with numbers).
Ok. this says that of all patients in the sample (see point 2 above), about 34% had at least one "outcome" in 6 months from infection.
now have a look at the actual "outcomes"....
24% is "mood, anxiety etc disorder"
17% anxiety disorder
14% mood disorder
5% insomnia
these are not that surprising, given how bad COVID can be and how long symptoms can last. but these are scarily called "Brain disorders" by FT.
also if you look at "first outcome" rows (i.e. people who never had this before) - percentages are much much lower ("any" goes down to 13%).
and of course the "any" number of 33% is mostly driven by these mood, anxiety and insomnia "outcomes" (all others, more serious things are much much rarer).
and again, most people if they survived Covid by just staying at home will not be in this research.
i do think COVID is a serious, unpredictable and often deadly illness and it is important to vaccinate people to stop it. and i will get my vaccine when i get it. but misrepresenting medical research to scare people into it is fucking weak, man.