The sciences of statistics and systematic analysis applied to the causes of health and disease.
Questions tagged [epidemiology]
56 questions
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Is there real scientific consensus linking bats to COVID-19?
I see a lot of articles in the media mentioning new bat species and adding references in the articles or the titles linking bats to coronavirus [The links in ref1 at the bottom are just some samples]. Although not all of them mention explicitly the…
FluidCode
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Are the only remaining polio cases in Africa vaccine-derived?
World Polio Day: Wild poliovirus type 3 declared eradicated:
Salisbury also said no WPV1 has been detected anywhere on the African continent since 2016. Several African nations, however, are still reporting cases of circulating vaccine-derived…
user53755
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Is drinking a half-bottle of wine a night ‘as bad as three cigarettes’
A recent study on the cancer risks of drinking alcohol has been widely reported in news headlines. The Times headline is:
Half-bottle of wine a night ‘as bad as three cigarettes’
The BBC summarise slightly differently:
Drinking one 750ml bottle…
matt_black
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Are medics often incapable of understanding or communicating statistical results to their patients?
A recent news article on the BBC summarises work of Gerd Gigerenzer that argues (my emphasis):
...it's not just that doctors and dentists can't reel off the relevant stats for every treatment option. Even when the information is placed in front of…
matt_black
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Are plastics making us fat and giving us diabetes?
A recent widely reported news story (example report from the Independent) suggested that one explanation for the modern rise in obesity was not too much food or two little exercise but many of chemical additives common in the modern environment…
matt_black
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Were millions of people infected by SARS?
There's an article circulating on Czech social media that makes the following interesting claim, among others (translation mine):
Data that we currently have available say that in areas where SARS or MERS was active, there are now tens of percent…
Petr Hudeček
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Does access to legal marijuana reduce dependence on opiates and other drugs?
It has recently been reported in several news sources that places where access to marijuana has been legalised have seen significant decreases in the use of other, more dangerous, drugs.
In an article arguing that a more relaxed approach to medical…
matt_black
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Does treating people with mild hypertension improve their outcomes?
There is a reasonably strong relationship between high blood pressure (hypertension) and cardiovascular events such s strokes and heart attacks. As a result, conventional wisdom (as expressed here by WHO) suggests preventative treatment:
Since…
matt_black
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Have few, if any, studies on the health effects of particulate air pollution measured the actual exposure to particulates?
Air pollution is a major health concern worldwide. One of the major problems is the emissions caused by traffic such as nitrogen dioxide and the small particulates known as PM 2.5 (which are very small carbon particles associated with vehicle…
matt_black
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Could a SARS-CoV-2 variant with increased transmissibility lead to more deaths than a variant with increased Case Fatality Ratio?
A January 1, 2021 article by Zeynep Tufekci reported in The Atlantic talks of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19.
It states:
A more transmissible variant of COVID-19 is a potential catastrophe in and of itself. If anything, given the…
Nigel J
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Could the COVID-19 mortality rate be way lower than we think, implying vastly more cases?
I was analyzing some of the data surrounding COVID-19, and was looking at the vastly different mortality rates (calculated as deaths / total cases * 100).
While there are probably many factors influencing differing mortality rates (age mainly),…
robbieperry22
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