Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Itoluzimab
Most recents (6)
A thread.
I was alerted to a Newsweek paper by Yale professor of Epidemiology Harvey Risch in which he argues quite persuasively that #Hydroxychloroquin, #HCQ (= Azithromycin + Zinc) is an effective treatment for early-stage #Covid19 and has been opposed on spurious grounds
I was alerted to a Newsweek paper by Yale professor of Epidemiology Harvey Risch in which he argues quite persuasively that #Hydroxychloroquin, #HCQ (= Azithromycin + Zinc) is an effective treatment for early-stage #Covid19 and has been opposed on spurious grounds
Here's a link to the Newsweek article. It refers to a paper by Risch in the Americal Journal of Epidemiology (#AJE) which details the evidence. newsweek.com/key-defeating-…
I looked at the #AJE paper. The abstract is here as a screen shot. It is freely downloadable as a pdf and there is a supplemental 'doc file with the details of 5 studies. 
A tweet thread.
There are a few noteworthy drawbacks in India's education system: One is the emphasis on fact rather than method/process in science education explained in this article: newslaundry.com/2020/07/06/ind…)
There are a few noteworthy drawbacks in India's education system: One is the emphasis on fact rather than method/process in science education explained in this article: newslaundry.com/2020/07/06/ind…)
Another is the artificial separation of the arts and the sciences. So we end up with engineers and scientists (who anyway lack the rigour and scepticism of science) without an understanding of the social sciences of behavioural psychology, economics, philosophy or literature
Equally we have arts graduates with limited understanding of science or biology, and even less about scientific method and scepticism. Of course those who never get to school or do not progress beyond primary school are left behind altogether.
Apropos the debate about @BioconLimited's limited trial of its #Itoluzimab, this is a brief note (that might grow) about common misunderstandings of terms and concepts in the statistical theory that underpins clinical trials and indeed statistics in general
So here goes:
So here goes:
1. The p- value that is often quoted in papers and journal articles and in the case of #Itoluzimab even in press conferences. It is NOT the probability that the results arose by chance. That is almost a nonsense statement. The results observed are the results.
If the null hypothesis was true-that there was indeed no difference (in the wider population of patients) between #Itoluzimab and #standardcare, THEN the probability that we would have observed in our trial of 30 patients a difference this big or bigger - that is the p value.
Okay, here we go! Gather round!!
Ive got some simple stochastic modelling to share with y'all interested in the statistical apects of @Bioconlimited's trial of #Itolizumab. Bear with me while I put on my best Professorial air. Computer code and charts coming up, all in R.
Ive got some simple stochastic modelling to share with y'all interested in the statistical apects of @Bioconlimited's trial of #Itolizumab. Bear with me while I put on my best Professorial air. Computer code and charts coming up, all in R.
Pay attention now, class! silence please there in the back row, yes you guys from #'BigPharma, put away your iPhones and listen.
Here is the Q. If A) the background mortality is 10% and I treat 'em all with 1 ml of pure saline. how many out of 20 wud die? Let's model this.
Here is the Q. If A) the background mortality is 10% and I treat 'em all with 1 ml of pure saline. how many out of 20 wud die? Let's model this.
Look at this simple computer code in R. I am simulating what would happen in real life - stochastic modeling at its simplest. I am going to pretend I can take 10,000 samples each of size 20. and let R tell me how many in each sample will die given the background Prob(Death) = 0.1
Okay, listen up, @Bioconlimited @kiranshaw, and others
I've now seen the youtube press conference. Let me take up one issue with Biocon's Chief Medical Officer, who addresses the Q of small sample size (from 1:35 onwards in the video
I've now seen the youtube press conference. Let me take up one issue with Biocon's Chief Medical Officer, who addresses the Q of small sample size (from 1:35 onwards in the video
He says quite clearly, that the small sample size doesn't matter because the trial achieved statistical significance. What does that really mean? rhetorical question. It means that if the null hypothesis of no difference between Itoluzimab and standard care was true, then..
this particular trial 30 patients, 20 Arm A with 0 deaths, 10 Arm B with 2 deaths (I presume those numbers are accurate) provided evidence to reject that Null Hypothesis. But in doing so we may be committing a Type 1 error.
A thread.
Investigating the extent of acceptance worldwide of the role of @Bioconlimited's #Itolizumab in the treatment of #Psoriasis - a disease that afflicts upto 2% of the population. I conducted a search on PubMed.
Investigating the extent of acceptance worldwide of the role of @Bioconlimited's #Itolizumab in the treatment of #Psoriasis - a disease that afflicts upto 2% of the population. I conducted a search on PubMed.
The search strategy was:
((Psoriasis[MeSH Major Topic]) AND (systematic review[Publication Type])) AND (itolizumab[Text Word])
Yielded 2 results. To be continued soon
((Psoriasis[MeSH Major Topic]) AND (systematic review[Publication Type])) AND (itolizumab[Text Word])
Yielded 2 results. To be continued soon
I'll pick this threade up now.
One of those papers was a Cochrane review. Reliable, authoritative and influential. It always pays to check Cochrane Library for a review first.
One of those papers was a Cochrane review. Reliable, authoritative and influential. It always pays to check Cochrane Library for a review first.
