Article

2020-05-26 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Stanford University is investigating its own researchers over claims their antibody study was politically motivated and 'tipped the scale' to make COVID-19 seem LESS lethal

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Posted by Skidmark 2020-05-26 13:53|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ] Top

#1 Oh-ho. The research was performed by Drs Jayanta Bhattacharya (left), John Ioannidis (center) and Eran Bendavid (right), who are now under investigation by the university for making the virus appear more widespread but less deadly than believed.

Not 50-80 times more, but only 54 times more. Didn't follow the narrative!

Posted by Bobby 2020-05-26 14:02|| 2020-05-26 14:02|| Front Page Top

#2 Obviously a politically motivated persecution. The clique decided to eliminate the one voice of Truth and Scientific Integrity in Corona-hoax.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-26 14:18|| 2020-05-26 14:18|| Front Page Top

#3 Except that, Ioannidis himself publicly stated that he welcomed critiques of the study and even invited people to suggest changes -- which he and Bhattacharya and Bendavid quickly adopted and put forth in a revised version.

As Ioannidis has repeatedly said - about not just this study but every biomedical researcher's studies: "this is exactly how science should work. … Preprints are not immutable final versions.”

Compare his and Bhattacharya and Bendavid's openness, honesty and humility with Neil Ferguson's behavior. Ask yourself who deserves more trust.

(Nice try though.)

Posted by Lex 2020-05-26 14:23|| 2020-05-26 14:23|| Front Page Top

#4 This is no doubt revenge against Ioannidis for calling BS on fake causality that is rife in medical studies - most notoriously with hormone therapy prescribed to women as a heart disease preventive and arterial stents.

Each was a fraud that cost billions; it was Ioannidis and his crusade for transparency and opening research to critique who exposed these frauds. Obviously the man has many enemies - despite (or maybe also because of) his honesty and humility.

From a profile of Ioannidis in Stanford Magazine in 2012:

"John P.A. Ioannidis, chief of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, works with colleagues around the globe to scrutinize treatments that account for huge chunks of the health- care tab but that are, he says, virtually worthless and sometimes harmful.

"Ioannidis says financial influence is one of several factors that can, deliberately or unintentionally, skew study design and methodology and undermine the validity of published research findings. His extensive publications pointing out these problems are reverberating throughout the scientific community—and threaten entire medical specialties that have organized themselves around big-ticket, but low-value, interventions.

"'Fixing this involves a rethinking of the process that won't happen overnight and is not very cheap,' Ioannidis says. 'However, if we continue in the same path we will run out of money, as a country, even the whole world . . . there is a cloud of ineffective interventions, or minimally effective interventions that are extremely expensive and therefore not worth it. We need to sort out that mess.' "

Regarding the hormone therapy and heart stent debacles:

"Those two treatments 'cost billions of dollars and supported the existence of entire specialties for many years,' Ioannidis and his co-authors wrote in January in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ioannidis says the data clearly show that patients were subjected to risk with no chance of benefit. ..."

Posted by Lex 2020-05-26 14:37|| 2020-05-26 14:37|| Front Page Top

#5 Lex, mi hermano, relax. The student, Ben David, will take the blame - that's the academic way.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-26 14:56|| 2020-05-26 14:56|| Front Page Top

#6

Would you buy a used car from these men?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-26 15:03|| 2020-05-26 15:03|| Front Page Top

#7 Keep tryin', g.

There is no 'blame' here. As Ioannidis wrote in his response to critiques of his famous 2005 paper, biomedical research errors are to be expected. Ioannidis called then and now for openness, humility and honesty: "having many teams with transparent availability of all results and integration of data across teams leads to genuine progress. We need replication, not just discovery."

Above all, humility and respect for uncertainty:

"Scientific investigation is the noblest pursuit. I think we can improve the respect of the public for researchers by showing how difficult success is. Confidence in the research enterprise is probably undermined primarily when we claim that discoveries are more certain than they really are, and then the public, scientists, and patients suffer the painful refutations."

Your snark needs to be re-directed toward the likes of Neil Ferguson.

Posted by Lex 2020-05-26 15:30|| 2020-05-26 15:30|| Front Page Top

#8 I detect practical hero worship, Lex.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-26 15:37|| 2020-05-26 15:37|| Front Page Top

#9 tee hee!

Just admit it, g: This was vastly overhyped, it created extraordinary damage to the world beyond your little garden, and now the tide is turning and leaders are recognizing - though they'll never ever admit - that they f'ed up royally.

It is becoming obvious with every week that the lockdown will cause more deaths than it sounds ared. So foolish.

For these reasons the lockdown is collapsing in the red states. Democrats have taken notice and are now scrambling to come up with a new narrative. Even Pomade Boy in California is starting to feel the heat.

You're behind the curve, g.

Posted by Lex 2020-05-26 15:45|| 2020-05-26 15:45|| Front Page Top

#10 The freudian projection from you regarding the catastrophically wrong projections (and not for the first time either) of Fergusson are detected by those who quickly worked out lockdown was a mistake.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2020-05-26 15:46|| 2020-05-26 15:46|| Front Page Top

#11 While the entire Accela corridor is trying to figure out if / when you can get a manicure or a haircut, we here in Florida are having a manned space flight this week.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 15:50|| 2020-05-26 15:50|| Front Page Top

#12 And, none of you are helping that poor, sick "it's just starting" guy by baiting him. Just ignore him. He's happy with his delusion. The rest of you, get back to work. America needs your effort directed to constructive pursuits.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 15:55|| 2020-05-26 15:55|| Front Page Top

#13 The New York Times gets it: even as sensibly-managed state Florida rebounds under Gov. DeSantis, the NYT concludes that locked-down California has been well and truly fooked:

"Across California there is a growing sense that the pandemic will reshape the state’s economy, with long-lasting pain. ...

"In Los Angeles...the jobless rate has reached 24 percent, roughly equal to the peak unemployment of the Great Depression, in 1933.

“Economic free fall,” is how Tom Steyer, the former presidential candidate, described it . He is heading the state’s economic recovery task force, a group of business leaders, labor activists, economists and former governors who have begun meeting to plot a way out. California faces a daunting budget deficit of $54 billion, which could force painful cuts to schools, social programs, health care and road building. ...

"As the debate on reopening is increasingly shaped by the country’s partisan divide, many conservative states are moving more quickly to restart their economies and many liberal states, like California, are taking more precautions. According to location data compiled by Google, Californians have more strictly abided by stay-at-home orders than people in other states..."

Posted by Lex 2020-05-26 16:01|| 2020-05-26 16:01|| Front Page Top

#14 Steyer no doubt has big plans to remake Cali's economy making Greta love dolls and Trump voodoo dolls.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 16:21|| 2020-05-26 16:21|| Front Page Top

#15 And where are the glowing stories about how dope kept Colorado afloat thru the lockdown scam?

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 16:22|| 2020-05-26 16:22|| Front Page Top

#16 The people have decided the scientists had their chance. We listened early not to wear masks or be afraid to go to china town for New Years or Mardi Gras. Then we listened to various projections and mixed messages. Now folks are using their own experience to make decisions. They do not see Walmart or supermarket employees dropping like flies or home delivery people dying daily or front line workers giving up.... but they see way more people bothered with the lockdown and shutdown.

This article is just another distraction; the masses have stopped listening to the ‘scientists’ and politicians.

Posted by Airandee 2020-05-26 16:45|| 2020-05-26 16:45|| Front Page Top

#17 And rats get vicious when cornered.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 16:54|| 2020-05-26 16:54|| Front Page Top

#18 MM, all of your comments are spot on. And I am damned proud of the manned space flight. I don't always agree with you, but right is right.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2020-05-26 18:10|| 2020-05-26 18:10|| Front Page Top

#19 I don't always agree with me either.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 18:43|| 2020-05-26 18:43|| Front Page Top

#20 even as sensibly-managed state Florida

Words no one who ever read a Carl Hiasen novel expected to see in print.
Truly we live in an Age of Miracle and Wonder.

Posted by SteveS 2020-05-26 18:52|| 2020-05-26 18:52|| Front Page Top

#21 Hiassen is a jerk.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 18:53|| 2020-05-26 18:53|| Front Page Top

#22 Read Tim Dorsey. The Thirst Mutilator from Addiction World.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 19:00|| 2020-05-26 19:00|| Front Page Top

#23 Read Randy Wayne White too.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 19:01|| 2020-05-26 19:01|| Front Page Top

#24 Never met him. He used to be a reporter, IIRC, so being a jerk is highly possible.
His books make me laugh out loud (literally), even if they tend towards being formulaic.

Posted by SteveS 2020-05-26 19:02|| 2020-05-26 19:02|| Front Page Top

#25 I used to be a reporter. Instawhoever called me a jerk. So I guess that's how it is. I'm cool with that.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 19:44|| 2020-05-26 19:44|| Front Page Top

#26 Read Thomas McGuane.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 19:46|| 2020-05-26 19:46|| Front Page Top

#27 "How are you doing today?"
"I'm dying."
"How do you feel about that?"
"Don't know. Never done it before."

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-26 19:51|| 2020-05-26 19:51|| Front Page Top

#28 I used to be a reporter.

That’s an actual Rantburger category that includes at least two moderators, along with programmer/systems analyst, military, mechanic, lawyer, engineer, and professor. Also housewife. And Steve, Army of. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2020-05-26 21:15|| 2020-05-26 21:15|| Front Page Top

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