Hehe you don't know me. I have three kids -- two engineers and a family physician. I won't tell you my belief system but I do think it's okay for atheists to pray for something good to happen -- not that it will change anything, it's just an expression of how we feel.
I'm sick to death of all these people (and I'm not saying you, I don't know you) who, as soon as Trump said something about a drug, suddenly became purists about the sanctity of randomized double-blinded, peer-reviewed, multi-site-around-the-world repeated trials.
Yes that's the gold standard. But 99% of what is medical textbooks is not backed by that gold standard.That gold standard doesn't take months, it doesn't take years, it takes DECADES. So it is of little relevance for treatment in this pandemic. It might be helpful for the next pandemic 20 or 40 years away.
If you actually read the ongoing discussions between scientists and doctors in forums & on Twitter (which is pretty incredible -- you can watch the scientific process going on in real time) you can see that the understanding of the disease and treatment strategies is growing, not by the day, but by the HOUR.
Very little of this new knowledge has anything to do with double blind studies. It's all based on sharing clinical experience (or, as Fauci calls it, anecdotes). For example the sea change in just the last 4-5 days on ICU treatment -- to realize this disease cannot be treated like every other viral pneumonia that's ever come down the pike.
Trying to pump people's lungs with ventilators just liquifies the damaged lung tissue and kills these patients -- who knew? Huge changes in protocols are being tried in the space of 12 hours -- without any randomized studies. ICU doctors are trying a whole range of medicines in non-standard (meaning untested) ways, trying to find combinations that work better.
When you have a disease that is killing 2,000 Americans a day, soon to be 5,000 and after that 10,000, the rules change. You accept more risk and uncertainty and you try to save people.
And in my opinion, there should be more discussion about whether randomized double-blind studies are even APPROPRIATE with a disease that is so deadly in such a short period of time. If you're testing pimple cream, the control group isn't going to die. If you're testing arthritis, and the drug works, you can give it to the control group and still help them.
In this case these trials are asking people who are struggling for breath to agree to a 50% chance that they get placebo (i.e. NO TREATMENT) for a disease that could kill them in about 12 hours. It is being reported that they're having trouble finding volunteers. Ya think???
