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    If somebody thinks a scientific experiment or test is misteading .. Archived Message

    Posted by Shyaku on October 13, 2020, 10:19 am, in reply to "Re: I'm a fan of Bayesian statistics - better than standard statistics for clinical trials...probably"

    They publish evidence in the scientific literature. Usually evidence pertaining specifically to the test in question, and evidence that is of a higher scientific standard than the original validation of the test they want to challenge.

    On the other hand, if somebody wants to lie for personal gain, they simply write a bunch of lies and publish them, or they pay a good lawyer to try to convince a judge who has no background in the subject in question.

    It seems so, if you will excuse my English, bleedin' obvious that I don't really know why it needs to be said.

    For anybody who knows how these tests work, and how they are developed, and how they are are validated, assertions about false positives without a really clear explanation of what everybody involved would have missed, but simply implying that everybody, and/or everything involved is phony, is kind of very transparent.

    If somebody claimed false negatives, given the probable variability of swabbing, it would be far more convincing as a starting point. For someone to talk about false postives without considering the false negative rate, and the overwhelming likelihood that this will be higher than the false positive rate for a nucleic acid-based test, is a dead givaway. This is simply the truth, I am not saying this for personal gain, or to win an argument, or to insult someone I don't like or any other ulterior reason.

    Any lab could acquire testing materials and experiment with them if they want to question their quality. It is not very difficult to do, and plenty of very well-trained people would be motivated to do it. Stereotyping the scientific community as a bunch of self-serving/corrupt idiots may work for self-serving idiots, but for anybody who knows the community from the inside, its a fantasy. People want to prove each other wrong *all the time*, and they will generally apply all their wits and ingenuity to do it. Its what they live for, and they are not all in the pay of big pharma, for sure. Some quite the opposite - screwed over/ripped off by big pharma, I can assure you.

    Best regards,

    - Shyaku




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