tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3818578330277648986.post3286932830328146418..comments2024-03-28T12:18:49.592-04:00Comments on Hackwhackers: The Trump Death Tour By The Numbershackwhackershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08904133306530977699noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3818578330277648986.post-64804268409131362182020-10-31T19:47:53.189-04:002020-10-31T19:47:53.189-04:00Unfortunately while the effect is likely true, the...Unfortunately while the effect is likely true, the numbers will be wrong, as the methodology was wrong. Like the Sturgis paper, this is done by economists, without consulting an epidemiologist. While I don’t have one in house any more (cancer, wife, May), I emailed one of her classmates, who is now a professor of public health.<br /><br />She is a Biden voting German born naturalized US citizen, that might just drag hubby and the kids back to Germany if Trump manages to steal the election.<br /><br />Here is the meat of her comments:<br /><br /> 3. We are convinced that his events are spreading COVID-19 and we’ll find a way to prove it<br /> 4. The epi studies out there don’t seem to show much of an effect of the Trump events; therefore, we claim that we’ve come up with a different approach that the entire field of epidemiology has never thought of (not that we checked...because if we had checked we would have discovered that our approach has been used in epi studies forever except that epi studies - unlike us - tend to use it correctly). We also make the basic assumption that a degree in epidemiology is unnecessary to conduct an epi study. Anybody can do it.<br /> 5. We are unaware of, ignore or explain away most major problems with our approach.<br /> 6. We hide the remaining major flaws behind various pseudo-statistical smokescreens.<br /> 7. As long as we haven’t found what we set out to find, we keep making adjustments to our approach.<br /> 8. We repeat steps 5-7 until we’re happy with the results.<br /> 9. Voila! We have shown scientifically that Trump is a jerk!<br /><br /> Not that I disagree with their sentiments about Trump, but this is no way to conduct a scientific study. These authors give science and scientists a bad name.<br />rjnerdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12062441244622460707noreply@blogger.com