COVID-19 (artist formerly known as Wuhan strain novel Corona virus)

Discussion in 'The Thunderdome' started by IP, Jan 28, 2020.

  1. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Do they have staff evaluating, or do they rely on unpaid volunteers? I ask because many, many journals rely solely on unpaid volunteers to screen and review papers. Sure, those volunteers are experts but it isn't really their job so much as a professional courtesy. This has been a problem in fields I participate in, because the pool of potential reviewers is limited by many factors and sometimes you end up with less experienced researchers serving in those roles.

    I would hope this is not the case for the Lancet, but many journals actually don't employ scientists in that field at all. It's editors with editorial skills.
     
  2. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    I'm sure it was peer reviewed.

    And peer review most likely won't catch that the database was flawed - in many cases, they wouldn't even have access to that database.

    But peer review could call into question whether a data mining exercise is appropriate for this type of application. At the very least, I would require the authors to acknowledge this limitation in their methodology section.
     
  3. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    They do those things (brain is failing me) where they combine a whole bunch of studies with small numbers to try and get a big n and see what trends emerge. That’s done a lot, but there’s always the caveat that materials and methods vary from study to study, yada yada.
     
  4. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    I'm reacting to the word "staff." I don't think that is often the case. There is no "staff" with that kind of technical expertise for many journals.
     
  5. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    They’ve got money and it’s been around since the 1800s.
     
  6. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Oh, I know. But they don't staff that way.
     
  7. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    I understand, and agree there typically aren't scientific staff. There is typically an editorial committee made up of scientists, but they aren't going to see all the papers. For every journal, your impact begins and ends with the papers the editorial committee can recruit and your quality begins and ends with the strength of your peer reviewers. Those reviewers are definitely not staff.
     
    IP likes this.
  8. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    They have an editor that’s been in place a long time and with the potential impact of this study, not to mention the way higher than average number of readers, I’ve got to think it slid across his desk before it was included in the journal.
     
  9. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    I agree that this isn't acceptable and shouldn't happen.
     
  10. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    That's fair. I'd say most of these COVID papers are being looked at out of interest if not professional responsibility.

    Have you read this paper? I might pull it up; I want to see if they acknowledged the shortcomings of the approach. Often papers will have an entire section on shortcomings.
     
  11. fl0at_

    fl0at_ Humorless, asinine, joyless pr*ck

    Didn't Brazil do a study and stopped it due to arrhythmia?
     
  12. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    Looking at the study, they tried to control for disease severity by excluding any patient for whom treatment started more than 48 hours after PCR-based diagnosis. They also excluded any patients who were on mechanical ventilation. So, it isn't like they blindly said "who got it and did they live?". However, because patients were showing up to the hospital in various states to get tested, I question how effective such a selection process could be....

     
  13. TBSVOL

    TBSVOL Member

    Total Weekly Cases exceeded 3500 for the second time
    Progress basically decreased during the week
    Both Hamilton and Rutherford made the Top 5 Active, Bottom 5 Progress lists
    TOP 5 total cases/1000: Trousdale(177.1) Lake(106.6) Bledsoe(47.4) Davidson(8.7) Robertson(7.8)
    for reference - Knox County infectious rate is 1.0/1000
    % Death Rate Projection slightly Decreased again this week
    upload_2020-6-3_14-25-46.png
     
  14. droski

    droski Traffic Criminal

    my neighbor fell down today and apparently called 911 and a fire truck and ambulance showed up with like 10 dudes and none of them were wearing masks despite the city wide mandate
     
  15. Unimane

    Unimane Kill "The Caucasian"

  16. droski

    droski Traffic Criminal

  17. The Dooz

    The Dooz Super Moderator

    How many of those top counties have prisons?
     
  18. droski

    droski Traffic Criminal

    i'd be very curious to know what the infection rate is sans prisons and nursing homes.
     
  19. Unimane

    Unimane Kill "The Caucasian"

    Dammit, wrong thread. Moving it over there.
     
    droski likes this.
  20. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    I'd be curious to know what it was with and without measures. Ironically, if masks and distancing work then the rate will go down and people will see it as evidence of this being overblown.
     

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