Tom Yates

Have to say, I am tempted to do a second PhD!

When trains are pricier than planes, there’s a heavy social, financial and environmental cost In this week’s newsletter: whether it’s a holiday or work trip, railway travellers find themselves burdened by astronomical prices

When trains are pricier than planes, there’s a heavy social, financial and environmental cost

Good this, from @kenanmalik.bsky.social

Given status quo is unacceptable, the international community must apply overwhelming pressure to ensure one of the two potential solutions comes to pass

Cross community organising, of the kind @standing-together.bsky.social undertake, also important

One reason why the government is in a mess is that “is that true tho?” doesn’t get anywhere near enough weight against “what do the public think?”

Current Opportunities We have an iCASE studentship available to start for the 2025/2026 academic year, and applications to our fifth round of recruitment to our DTP to start in October 2026 are now also open. Please see…

🎓 Thinking about a PhD in clinical trial #methodology?

We have two funded PhD opportunities for students passionate about trial design and statistical methods:

• One in estimands
• One in non-inferiority trials

🔗 More info and how to apply here: buff.ly/lCpqcF6

@mrcnihrtmrp.bsky.social

Moderna says key study of its CMV vaccine, expected to be its next big win, failed Moderna said its experimental vaccine for cytomegalovirus failed in a key trial, a significant setback for a company already facing pressure from Wall Street and Washington.

“Moderna is still developing the CMV vaccine for patients undergoing a bone marrow transplant.” www.statnews.com/2025/10/22/m...

I think there are major advantages to the approach

Why expect optimal duration to be a standard number of days, e.g. 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, etc?

With DURATIONS, even if you don't manage to prove non inferiority of e.g. 7 days, top end of the confidence interval can still allow you to shorten treatment

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Mushroom

Perhaps, but Matteo published the DURATIONS design paper 7 years ago now

What if the optimal duration turns out to be e.g. 10 days?

Why are we still doing duration A vs duration B trials?

Table showing marginal tax rates, excluding employer NI, existing and after proposed 2p cut in National Insurance and 2p rise in Income Tax: UK excluding Scotland

Switching 2p from National Insurance to Income Tax would raise £6 billion while protecting pay packets.

The increase in the state pension would mean that all pensioners with incomes below £40,000 would still be better off next year than this year.

Read 'Call of duties' now ⤵️ buff.ly/BKL1NyD

Scenario I'm considering has patient on long course of cefazolin for another indication

What do we think about cefazolin for late latent syphilis? @drmichaelmarks.bsky.social

#IDsky

Good listen

Priorities in addressing rifampicin resistant TB Progress in testing and trial design are needed Rifampicin is a critical component of tuberculosis (TB) treatment regimens. Recent positive developments in rifampicin resistant TB—the emergence of ne...

NEW EDITORIAL!

Me, @drjesspotter.bsky.social and Rouxjeane Venter argue

- that rapid near patient DST should be developed alongside new RRTB treatment regimens
- for changes in the design of Phase 3 treatment trials
- we must oppose unprecedented cuts to research funding and development assistance

Priorities in addressing rifampicin resistant TB Progress in testing and trial design are needed Rifampicin is a critical component of tuberculosis (TB) treatment regimens. Recent positive developments in rifampicin resistant TB—the emergence of ne...

NEW EDITORIAL!

Me, @drjesspotter.bsky.social and Rouxjeane Venter argue

- that rapid near patient DST should be developed alongside new RRTB treatment regimens
- for changes in the design of Phase 3 treatment trials
- we must oppose unprecedented cuts to research funding and development assistance

I think people with a CFS label most likely have a mix of different pathology

I think psychiatric and physical illness are equally 'real'

I think these findings won't replicate

Or possibly these are biomarkers common to many different illnesses, perhaps the downstream consequences of inactivity

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead The children’s names below appear on a list of victims of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, maintained by health authorities in the territory. As of the end of July it ran to 60,199 names, of whom 18,457 were under 18s. Far from comprehensive, the list does not include the thousands still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, as well as the war’s many indirect victims As of the end of July there were 18,457 children named on the long official list of Palestinian victims of Israel’s war in Gaza. Over almost two years, that is equivalent to bombs, bullets and shells killing a boy or girl every hour of every day. In reality the deaths are not spaced out so evenly. Siblings, cousins and playmates are often killed together, by an airstrike or artillery shell. Even children shot by snipers or quadcopters are sometimes brought into hospitals in groups, doctors say. Continue reading...

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Even if you disregard likely overfitting, the tiny validation sample and whether the outcome is pathophysiologically coherent, what is this test for?

You don't need a £1000 test to distinguish folk with profound fatigue from people with normal activity levels - you can just ask them

Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges Gill admits to eight charges while an elected member of the European parliament Nathan Gill, a former leader of Reform UK in Wales, has pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to eight bribery charges while an elected member of the European parliament. More details soon … Continue reading...

Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges

Powell or Phillipson? I am leaning Powell

I have no idea. The press release suggests two different dosing strategies were tried

There is a press release
uniqure.gcs-web.com/news-release...

Sham procedures are certainly done to robustly evaluate surgical interventions - you can blind patient and have blinded outcome assessors

Or a blinded MAMS-ROCI across a wide range of doses could have been done - a completely flat dose response curve would suggest no biological activity

I think the regulator/REC dropped the ball

This exercise reduced equipoise without generating sufficient data to allow intervention to be confidently rolled out

To roll out expensive invasive intervention in perpetuity, we really need to know how well it works

For me, the key question is whether that journey includes a trial demonstrating definitively whether the intervention does more good than harm

I am not sure data of that kind can be sufficiently robust to roll out an invasive intervention without an RCT

Cohort of 29 compared to a propensity score matched group of comparator patients

Unclear from press release whether RCT will be required by regulator

Clear potential for harm - drug instilled during a lengthy neurosurgical procedure

Thoughts? #medsky #statsky

I don't know if those data exist. Will be mix of leaving and not starting research track. The consultant contract partly compensates trainees who delay completing training due to dual specialty or less than full time working, but there is no such protection for time spent in research.

The average main applicant who received a visa 2019-2023 made about 45% more than the average person in the UK. The average dependent who received a visa 2019-2023 made about 25% less than the average person in the UK. The average person who received a humanitarian visa made about 33% less than the average person in the UK. When we take a weighted average of all categories of 2019-2023, the average new migrant who arrived 2019-2023 made £24,881 in FY 2023-2024. This is about 4% more than average earnings - even when I have made optimistic assumptions about native-born earnings and excluded any self-employment income for migrants. It is difficult to see how admitting people who outearn the native-born would be catastrophic for public finances, particularly given that the British state need not pay to educate them. The data certainly does not seem to suggest this cohort is a “ticking time bomb” for British public finances

There are actually credible and competent analysts looking at the data.

www.laurenpolicy.com/p/are-recent...