Kevin McIntyre

There are more ways of knowing things than just RCTs. Yes randomized trials are a great tool for answering all kinds of questions but they can't be used for everything. Making causal inferences from observational data is a fascinating field at the intersection of philosophy, math & content knowledge

Very similar process at Western Epibio

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Sec Kennedy said he doesn’t know how many people died of COVID in the US. But cites what percentage of world COVID deaths occurred in the US. US deaths divided by worldwide deaths X 100. So either he knows how many people died in the US or doesn’t know percentages.

Deaths averted by vaccination since the 1970’s

I mean let's say you're a terrible person and you don't care about children but only about money and work.

It might still be worth it to vaccinate.

Think about that.

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Domestically made, updated Moderna vaccines

Let’s Go Canada 🇨🇦 !

This is the heart of the piece - it has been utterly horrific

Commentary: RFK Jr.'s cancellation of mRNA vaccine research is even worse than it first seemed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used discredited and misrepresented studies to justify canceling research into life-giving vaccines.

My comments with @hiltzikm.bsky.social @latimes.com

www.latimes.com/business/sto...

A reminder that the mRNA vaccine technology saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic and received the 2023 Nobel Prize for Medicine

Also remember Doug saying this?

"Election day, was I happy this guy won? One hundred per cent I was" but then didn't like it that he hit Canada with tariffs. Ford has been a Trump fan boy for years previously describing himself as "a big republican".

mRNA vaccines are a game-changer. Faster to develop, generally safer, easy to modify, huge potential for wider applications (e.g. cancer). If the vaccine has been approved, it's already been thoroughly tested in randomised controlled trials. Nobody's trying to poison anyone with these vaccines.

be wildly cost effective given how cheap they are as far as interventions go & how common & debilitating nosocomial & workplace infection is. Remember this isn't just covid, it'll work against all resp disease so it'll help with flu & colds along with the myriad of other resp diseases

So essentially it comes down to how many nosociomal/workplace infections can we prevent & how much incremebtal benefit does that provide compared to how much money do respirators incrementally cost?

To my knowledge no one has done this, but I'd hypothesize that universal respirator use would

Aside for this. Generally we are seeing the benefits being as follows: less sickness for patients & staff leading to benefits in both quality of life & $ saved. Costs being, minor discomfort, some minor communication complications & costs (someone has to pay for the masks & we'll need a lot of them)

if that patient can come home sooner. But again there is the cost of discomfort, worse communication & cost (again to the system not individuals). Now there is also going to be <100% compliance & special cases (palliative care for example) where these general strokes won't hold but let's leave those

comfortable than not wearing one, the $ (as discussed before, this should be born by the system not individual staff), & possible more difficult communication with patients. Visitors gain the benefit of being less likely to get sick visiting a loved one & an increase in their quality of life

perspective here - obviously the patient shouldn't have to pay). For staff, the main benefit includes being less likely to get sick at work, so decreased sick days & For the hospital paying less OT/being less short staffed due to absenteeism due to illness. The cost being it's probably less

Also potential complications arising/spiraling from getting such an infection (more medication, procedures, & increased probability of in-hospital death). The cost being, it's probably less comfortable than not wearing one, & masks do have some $ cost (although we'll take a health systems

Each of these groups will have different costs & benefits & there will obviously be interactions between them. For patients, the main benefit of wearing a respirator is likely reducing the probability of getting a nosocomial infection which improves quality of life & likely decreases hospital stay.

Let's think a bit more deeply on this. CEAs are essentially (incremental benefits/incremental costs). So let's think through what these all might be. First, we have essentially 3 groups of people in hospitals (we'll restrict this thought to them for ease). Patients, staff & visitors.

Maybe continuous respiratory use would be a "misuse of resources". However, just saying you think that is not evidence. Do an actual cost-effectiveness analysis. Calculate the benefits (eg fewer nosocomial infections & following outcomes) in both $ & health, & compare against the costs of masking

The irony of saying that the standard is "not supported by evidence" when they don't provide any evidence themselves. Also, their dabbling into health economics, while having no discernible expertise in that field & while claiming the authors of the standard don't have expertise really is something.

Sidekick projects may be worthy distractions for an early academic Dr. Ilya Kashnitsky is a demographer @ Statistics Denmark.

As I'm getting further from my PhD years, the reflections of that experience are becoming (hopefully) more useful to share with the ones who are just making their academic baby steps 🐾
👀 New blog post (my first not for R-bloggers) inspired by @clauswilke.com's post
🔗 ikashnitsky.phd/2025/sidekic...

So far no response that I'm aware of. Guyatt et al just published a series of articles in the BMJ pitching "core GRADE" (which to me looks very much like just recycled GRADE without any substantial improvements). In those 8 articles the word confounding was used less than 5 times by my count.

Using causal diagrams within the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework to evaluate confounding adjustment in observational studies The current Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system instructs appraisers to evaluate whether individual observational studies have sufficiently adjusted for c...

My issue with EBM (specifically GRADE) is it's complete lack of modern understanding regarding confounding. EBM remains in the early 90s with regard to its understanding of epidemiologic methods which is a major weakness for a process appraising the current lit.

www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Doctoral Excellence Award Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

My university (@westernu.ca) is offering up to $160,000 CAD in funding to support doctoral students impacted by recent changes in higher ed in the US.

And I'm keen on supervising students who may be interested (and who conduct research in public health ethics). DM me.

grad.uwo.ca/finances/wes...

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