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Scientific Credibility and the File-Drawer Problem
MISIS INSTITUTE ^ | 08/22/2021 | Peter G. Klein

Posted on 08/23/2021 2:40:45 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge

A trope of contemporary social commentary is that “science” has somehow become “politicized,” such that people no longer trust or believe what is presented as the scientific consensus on important social, political, and economic issues. The most salient example until recently was climate change, where various scientific professionals, associations, interest groups, and the like were portrayed as purely disinterested seekers of truth while disfavored outsiders were described as self-interested, ideological, or worse.

The idea of scientists as a priestly caste, criticism of whom constitutes “science denial” or “spreading misinformation,” is of course central to the conventional narrative about of Covid-19. Many commentators worry that substantial public disagreement on the nature and significance of the Covid-19 pandemic and the efficacy of vaccines and mitigation measures such as lockdowns, border closures, masks, and social distancing will contribute to a decline in trust of scientists and even science itself. Indeed, there is evidence that experience with previous epidemics leads to reduced trust in scientists and their work (though not “science” in the abstract).

Systematic misrepresentation of the scientific evidence on Covid-19 and its mitigation measures has been a central feature of news coverage and social media commentary for the last year and a half. Press releases from scientific organizations and government agencies, news reports of scientific papers, and social media posts by prominent scientists continue to focus on statistics such as the number of positive test results without controlling for the number of tests administered, the characteristics of the tested population, and the cycle threshold (sensitivity) for PCR tests; to present highly aggregated measures of infection and spread that obscure the enormously skewed distribution in severity by age and health status; and to ignore context that would allow for comparison across similar locations or among similar diseases over time.

(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: genderdysphoria; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; homosexualagenda; maskmandate; petergklein; peterklein; sciencetrust; scientism
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To: Renfrew
Actually I agree with your statement "It is almost impossible to design a clear study to prove that mask wearing works."

There is a very good reason for that - mask wearing DOESN'T WORK !

21 posted on 08/23/2021 3:55:02 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge (Just an old man, desperate to preserve our great country for my great grandchildren.)
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To: Grandpa Drudge

Could you point out one of those studies?


22 posted on 08/23/2021 3:56:17 PM PDT by Renfrew
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To: Renfrew
Pfizer notified the control group and allowed them take the jabs halfway through the trials.

The phase 3 trials for one of the jabs, in the New England Journal of Medicine, had a total of 24 participants (monkeys). 8 high-dose, 8 low-dose, 8 no jab.

You can't get good statistics out of that.

Or you have the editorial in Nature pushing for the jabs by someone with a vested interest in distributing them.

He wrote that "anti-vax" efforts come from (I'm not kidding) "Russia Russia Russia" and right-wing extremists who think Trump won the election. He wants a UN Task force to get involved.

Yeah, because SCIENCE!™

23 posted on 08/23/2021 4:18:22 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: Steely Tom

“Hope” never produces solutions. If hope is all you have you are unlikely to be consistently satisfied.

A plan and action are required to achieve a desired solution, otherwise you will simply be faced with someone else’s solution.


24 posted on 08/23/2021 4:21:42 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge (Just an old man, desperate to preserve our great country for my great grandchildren.)
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To: Renfrew
"Could you point out one of those studies?"

Sure, here is a thread I participated in, more than a year ago. I think several studies were discussed in that thread.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3865613/posts

25 posted on 08/23/2021 4:37:28 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge (Just an old man, desperate to preserve our great country for my great grandchildren.)
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To: Renfrew
also see

https://lcaction.org/vaccine

26 posted on 08/23/2021 4:42:29 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge (Just an old man, desperate to preserve our great country for my great grandchildren.)
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To: Renfrew

My god you’re both stupid and dishonest.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257385v1.full-text https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29395560 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15340662/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26579222/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31159777/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/ https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049528v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047217v2 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214 https://www.cmaj.ca/content/188/8/567 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5779801 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/65/11/1934/4068747 https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bio/23/2/23_61/_pdf/-char/en https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01658736 https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/0195-6701(91)90148-2/pdf90148-2/pdf) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493952/pdf/annrcse01509-0009.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20200717141836/https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25776/rapid-expert-consultation-on-the-effectiveness-of-fabric-masks-for-the-covid-19-pandemic-april-8-2020 https://www.nap.edu/read/25776/chapter/1#6 https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/54/7/789/202744 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6599448/ https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00392-020-01704-y https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/jide/journal-of-infectious-diseases-and-epidemiology-jide-6-130.php?jid=jide https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1130147308702355


27 posted on 08/23/2021 4:57:19 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers
Thanks very much, Whiskers! I had not seen that before, and its quite clear evidence that our "Mask Mandates" are severely misguided and inappropriate!

It's high time for a vigorous kickback against the mask mandates (and vaccine mandates, as well).

28 posted on 08/23/2021 5:15:14 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge (Just an old man, desperate to preserve our great country for my great grandchildren.)
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To: Grandpa Drudge

Remember, the people who tell us to “follow the science” are the same people who tell us there are 48 different sexes.


29 posted on 08/23/2021 5:32:58 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem by far is that most of the news media is hate & agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: libertylover

I thought it was 54 ?
Did six get lost ?


30 posted on 08/23/2021 5:34:25 PM PDT by Reily
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To: grey_whiskers; All
Now, I would like some serious help.

The real evidence that the mask mandates and lock-downs are NOT effective, and frequently harmful in many ways is as clear as it ever will be.

I want a campaign to make this evidence clearly understood and accepted by all those wielding political power and directing these mandates. THEY MUST BE STOPPED!

I don't know how to do that. I am asking for help to figure out how that can be done. Please post suggestions in this thread. I'll be watching for good ideas. And thanks in advance to all brave souls willing to step up to this challenge.

Also, if you know someone not participating in this thread who might help, please forward this to them as well.

31 posted on 08/23/2021 6:01:03 PM PDT by Grandpa Drudge (Just an old man, desperate to preserve our great country for my great grandchildren.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Are those meant to be anti-mask papers. From the very first one I clicked on randomly:

” Eight of nine retrospective observational studies found that mask and/or respirator use was independently associated with a reduced risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22188875/#:~:text=Eight%20of%20nine%20retrospective%20observational,and%20many%20studies%20were%20suboptimal.


32 posted on 08/23/2021 6:03:27 PM PDT by Renfrew
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To: Grandpa Drudge

Here’s a thought

IF masks worked then no one in Japan would get sick


33 posted on 08/23/2021 6:05:46 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Renfrew

Read the rest of them.


34 posted on 08/23/2021 6:18:14 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

No, that one analysis is enough. It analyzed all known studies on masks and the SARS virus, and found 8 out of 9 show masks are effective.

That’s great info, and I will make sure to reference it when mask debates come up in future.

Thank you again for sharing it!


35 posted on 08/23/2021 6:20:45 PM PDT by Renfrew
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To: grey_whiskers

Oh, and also don’t feel embarrassed for not understanding the studies you posted.

Based on how you post, I assume English is not your native language. Medical studies like these can be hard to read for someone without a firm grasp on English. It’s perfectly reasonable that you had trouble with them.


36 posted on 08/23/2021 6:24:36 PM PDT by Renfrew
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To: Renfrew
We all started wearing masks last year mostly because countries in Asia where mask wearing is common had much lower transmission rates. It was at best a guess that masks might be what made the difference.

And, as a result, Japan was lackadaisical about vaccinating people and then got caught in a surge of infections. That lead to the Lockdown Olympics where no spectators were allowed and the athletes and journalists were under virtual house arrest. Yep, those masks sure helped the Japanese.

37 posted on 08/23/2021 6:29:32 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Renfrew
Top. Kek. Yeah, you clicked on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5779801 and guess what. It's a REVIEW ARTICLE. And the very sentence AFTER the one you quoted, Mr. Cherry Picking troll-boi, reads: Findings, however, may not be applicable to influenza and "many studies were suboptimal. None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection."

Which means none of the studies proved masks work. Now make like Kamala with a milk shake.

38 posted on 08/23/2021 6:40:15 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: Renfrew

You’re wrong.

On all counts.


39 posted on 08/23/2021 6:40:52 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: Renfrew

Uh-huh.

Hey troll-boi.

Did you notice it dated back to 2009 - 2010?

Nice failure at bluffing, troll.


40 posted on 08/23/2021 6:42:30 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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