Early Covid studies show POOR scientific methods and LOW-quality research
What Covid can teach us about the epidemic of BAD SCIENCE
Here we are… right around the fourth anniversary of the biggest SCAM in recent memory.
You remember back in March 2020… when our country entered “crisis mode”…
And the feds’ OUTSIZED response to a new type of flu created a PANIC among our fellow Americans.
What began as the emergence of a new virus SPIRALED into a full-blown, global pandemic…
And we’re STILL feeling the shockwaves created by Covid.
The SADDEST part of all of this is… we’re just finding out now that it NEVER had to be this way.
You know what they say about hindsight being 20/20…
Well, the TRUTH about those early days of Covid is now becoming crystal clear… especially when it comes to how BAD those first studies were.
Of course, the kicker is that THOSE were the studies that set the tone for YEARS to come!
According to a recent review of scientific papers published in 2020, a number of factors created a “perfect storm” of UNRELIABLE, UNTRUSTWORTHY science…
Research that was taken as GOSPEL by those in charge…
And that ultimately may have HARMED untold numbers of innocent, vulnerable folks.
It all appears to boil down to these three things:
- Researchers RUSHING a huge number of papers out to scientific journals for publication.
- Journals RELAXING their peer review process and accepting MORE papers of LOWER quality… and MORE quickly… than their previous strict guidelines would’ve allowed.
- Policymakers and the public getting CONFUSED by all the noise created by a GLUT of published research, unable to differentiate between LOW- and HIGH-quality papers.
In retrospect, some of those early research methods were just WRONG…
Like using too-small sample sizes that weren’t random… and then using the results to reflect statistics about the general population…
Or using ZERO control groups… and therefore being unable to isolate any ONE variable that could’ve influenced the results.
MANY of those first papers that were published show clear BIAS – which is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT thing you’re supposed to AVOID in scientific research!
Problem is, PROPER scientific methods take time… which is why most high-quality research happens over the course of YEARS… if not DECADES.
But back in 2020, officials in charge wanted answers… RIGHT AWAY.
And where there were no real answers… study authors came up with some, by hook or by crook.
Remember how the official recommendations kept changing about masking… standing 6 feet apart… and hosing all our belongings down with bleach?
Much of that advice turned out to be just plain WRONG.
That had a ripple effect…
Because once a study gets printed in a reputable publication… OTHER studies begin to cite it.
And the MORE studies that cite that original study… the MORE legit it begins to seem.
It’s a lot like gossip. Once you put a rumor “out there”… it becomes really hard to take it back…
Especially in the age of the internet.
Thing is, this wasn’t new to the Covid pandemic. This was ALREADY happening in medical research… just at a less PRONOUNCED level.
Now, the scientific community CAN fix those errors of the past. Researchers can RETRACT their faulty studies… but often, they’re still PUBLISHED with the journal. They’re just marked “retracted.”
And they can STILL be cited by other studies.
Not surprisingly, with the MASSIVE influx of Covid studies… the retraction rate ALSO increased.
What’s TERRIFYING about that… if we’re going to “Monday morning quarterback” it… is that the RETRACTED articles were cited SIGNIFICANTLY MORE than other articles published in the same journals.
That fits what a 2018 MIT study found… which is that “fake news” travels faster on social media than the truth.
I pray that this makes us THINK TWICE the next time something like this comes around. Because it’s not a matter of “if”… but “when.”
I don’t have a lot of confidence in our officials learning from their past mistakes… but I hope that WE can.
Remember that “doing your research” isn’t just believing everything you find on Google… or everything the mainstream media tells us.
Because they’re looking for headlines that will help them sell to advertisers… REGARDLESS of whether they’re true or not.
In pursuit of the truth,
Dr. Marc S. Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D.
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