Re:About that Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 trial
by gus_massa on Monday March 23, 2020 @07:31AM
(#22662979)
> There's no need for establishing a benchmark. Just proper categorization of existing patient should be enough to compare.
This is very difficult to do. In this study all the patients in the treatment group are from a hospital and most of the patients in the other hospital are from other hospital. Do the population of both hospitals have the same median income? Usually a low income cause a bad diet that may cause bad health that has a worse prognosis.
Are the patients in the other countries classified by income? Does the difference in income cause more/less consumption of milk? Bottled milk has an additional amount of vitamin D, and some unconfirmed reports say that the lack of vitamin D is bad for covid19. Does this difference depend on the country? For historical/genetic reason, French drink more milk that Chinese. What about wine, is the consumption of wine important?
What is the effect of temperature and humidity in the no-hydroxychloroquine group? The average climate conditions change from country to country and from place to place and from month to month.
To be included in the testing group the patient must give consent. Probably they have not to be too wasted to be able to read it. Probably not been to wasted is a good sign.
There are a lot of factors, and not all of them are known, not all of them are easy to measure, not all of them are measured. So you need a control group.
This is very difficult to do. In this study all the patients in the treatment group are from a hospital and most of the patients in the other hospital are from other hospital. Do the population of both hospitals have the same median income? Usually a low income cause a bad diet that may cause bad health that has a worse prognosis.
Are the patients in the other countries classified by income? Does the difference in income cause more/less consumption of milk? Bottled milk has an additional amount of vitamin D, and some unconfirmed reports say that the lack of vitamin D is bad for covid19. Does this difference depend on the country? For historical/genetic reason, French drink more milk that Chinese. What about wine, is the consumption of wine important?
What is the effect of temperature and humidity in the no-hydroxychloroquine group? The average climate conditions change from country to country and from place to place and from month to month.
To be included in the testing group the patient must give consent. Probably they have not to be too wasted to be able to read it. Probably not been to wasted is a good sign.
There are a lot of factors, and not all of them are known, not all of them are easy to measure, not all of them are measured. So you need a control group.