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Bernie Black's avatar

Would you be interested in a guest post that would be a careful dissection of the VA covid vaccine booster study, that goes beyond what you wrote, and shows that the mortality estimate suffers from (likely severe) immortal time bias, among other problems?

From a (serious) COVID researcher. I did not know how to reach you directly.

Bernie Black, Northwestern University

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PharmHand's avatar

One of the consequences of our now prominent religious scientism is a proliferation of charlatans. I entirely support the notion of a dramatic journal culling combined with stopping the flood of weak pseudoscience apostles.

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Steve Cheung's avatar

Great satire!

And yes, SO MANY journals need to be culled. I realize there’s an argument for “democratization” of publishing. OTOH, when you bypass the gate-keepers, you get absolute garbage like this covid study. Having said that, plenty of nonsense gets published under the big banners these days also. It’s almost as if editors simply need to wake up and start doing their jobs.

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Adam Cifu, MD's avatar

"Wake up and start doing their jobs." Amen.

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Sheila Crook-Lockwood's avatar

I am a huge fan of satire because it is an excellent way to make a point. Well-done! Also, I am a big fan of sarcasm, which is probably why I enjoyed Vinay's X posts and podcasts so much! :)

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Ernest N. Curtis's avatar

Dr. Cifu, you should publish a book with all of your satirical articles. It may not become a best-seller, but I would certainly buy it. You posted an article recently on "alternative medicine" that I thought was a classic and intended to copy it, but forgot (age 79). Can you provide me with a link to that one? I don't bother reading any studies on covid as the data are completely unreliable.

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Ernest N. Curtis's avatar

That's the one. Thank you very much.

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Benjamin Hourani's avatar

Alan Sherrill’s comment is on point. I would take it a step further. The people in this study must have rubbed the blue AVS all over their bodies, until they had a bluish tinge over their entire corpus. Then they auditioned for the Blue Man group in Las Vegas. The study is not bad, it’s embarrassing. Who thinks this poo poo up? What the Frick!

Ben Hourani MD, MBA

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B Moon's avatar

Thank you so much for taking the time to write about this!

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Alan Sherrill's avatar

If the blue summary study existed, I'd be curious to know whether it is assumed people keep it by their bed and read it every night for a year, or immediately drop it in the trash bin when they get home.

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