13 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Simon Hodges's avatar

The suppress early treatment play book.

1. Try and use the medicine out of its applicable time frame. i.e. give anti-virals to severely advanced patients on ventilators as happened with HCQ.

2. Give far too little of a dose to be effective.

3. Give far too much of a dose so as to appear dangerous.

4. If all else fails make your study severely under powered so you can write off the positive clinical results as being not statistically significant.

5. Drop or manipulate primary and secondary end points if the drug you wish to suppress happens to meet any of them.

Have I missed any more?

Expand full comment
Simon Hodges's avatar

I forgot:

6. Try and trial the drug you want suppress against another 'placebo' that is also a potential therapeutic so they cancel one and other out.

Expand full comment
YYR's avatar

Game the placebo. One study showing IVM "no better than placebo" used an active compound under investigation as effective treatment for Covid, folic acid, which was discovered when pregnant women while on prenatals had much better covid outcomes. Placebos should be totally inert, eg sugar, talc, etc.

Expand full comment
Simon Hodges's avatar

Yes thanks for that. I put that down as No. 8 A bit embarrassing that I left it out originally as I wrote the original article pointing out the folic acid therapeutic benefits.

https://communityoperatingsystem.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/is-folic-acid-an-effective-treatment-for-covid-19/

Expand full comment
Simon Hodges's avatar

sorry number 6.

Expand full comment
Simon Hodges's avatar

9. Take a single drug from any multiple agent synergistic protocol and then RCT it on its own or in tandem with one other to show lack of efficacy.

Expand full comment
Simon Hodges's avatar

8. Abort the study due to supply issues.

Expand full comment
Simon Hodges's avatar

7. Do the study during an out of season period when Covid is not very prevalent in order to constrict the dataset.

Expand full comment
Michael Framson's avatar

I think your list has achieved statistical significance. You need to publish--JAMA, NEJM,

Expand full comment
SL's avatar

You have Big Pharma play book on how to kill and off patent drug.

Expand full comment
Ira Leifer's avatar

abort the study.

Expand full comment
Igor Chudov's avatar

Due to "supply issues", haha

Expand full comment
rjt's avatar

Review the Colombian IVM study where the study pharmacist mixed up the placebo and IVM for two weeks, started treatment on average day 7, still (to my surprise) had 1 day shorter symptoms, deemed non-significant. Also noted that IVM was widely available in the community, may have been used by anyone who became ill, or for prophylaxis.

This was the predecessor of the present "study" which was used by "Fact-Checkers" to "prove" IVM didn't work.

Expand full comment