2530: Clinical Trials

2021-10-18T22:47:53Z

162.158.88.127: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2530
| date = October 18, 2021
| title = Clinical Trials
| image = clinical_trials.png
| titletext = We don't need to do a clinical trial of this change because the standard of care is to adopt new ideas without doing clinical trials.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MEDICAL PROCEDURE STEP DERF - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The purpose of clinical trials in medicine is to make sure that a new medicine works and doesn't have serious side-effects. One example of the dangers of failing to make sure that it doesn't have serious side effects is {{w|thalidomide}}, which caused a lot of birth defects.

At the time that this comic was published, the world was in the middle of the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}} for which a number of treatments had been suggested. Given the medical, social and economic impact of this pandemic, many felt the need for an urgent answer. Many of these were based on new ideas (step 1) and led to some degree of public approval (step 2), leading to the demand to immediately deploy these treatments in medical practice (step 4). The missing Step 3 - proving the net benefits of taking that particular medicine - has led to great concern about knee-jerk demands for ineffective and/or dangerous treatments, alongside the rejection of treatments and precautions with actual supportive evidence behind them but often decried as "fake news" for spurious reasons.

For example, many opinion leaders recommended the use of the toxic chemical chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine despite no evidence of their effectiveness. Internationally, treatments such as cow urine and anti-worming treatments have been promoted without the evidence that the likes of dexamethasone, remdesivir, toclizumab and casirivumab/indevimab have for effectiveness.

The title text refers to "usual care" which indicates the current expected treatment. For example, a patient might receive oxygen, anaesthetic drugs and the exacting care of healthcare professionals. In many COVID-19 trials, a particular treatment was evaluated with one group having this, one group having this plus a particular drug. The comedy indicates that the healthcare professionals for that particular care don't give two toots about {w:Evidence-based medicine} and will give their patient whatever a former gameshow host/racist tweeter/president is being bribed with this week.

//Yeah, you lot's gonna have to do all the citations for this one//

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A list in a box.]

:1. Come up with new idea

:2. Convince people it's good

:[Scrawled in red handwriting, as an afterthought, an arrow indicating it is between item 2 and the original item 3] 3. Check whether it works

:3. [Now scribbled over and amended to "4."] New idea is adopted

:[Caption below the box] The invention of clinical trials.
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2529: Unsolved Math Problems

2021-10-16T08:09:43Z

162.158.88.127: Give explanation for k in panel 2

Center panel possibly related to "The drunkards walk" and theories on randomised motion.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/random-walk-puzzle-solution-20160907/
More references https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RandomWalk.html

Someone's gotta point out that "walking randomly on a grid, never visiting the same square twice" would rapidly trap you in a corner (even the example has a 50/50 chance of that happening on the next move) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.125|172.70.130.125]] 04:29, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

Not if it's an infinite grid.

I think there's two different ways to interpret the question - as a uniform random element of the set of all non-self-intersection NxK length paths, in which case it's fine, or as a path defined by a random walk in which moves onto your own path are not allowed, which doesn't seem well defined, since you might end up in a situation where you are surrounded by your own path and cannot continue for all NxK steps.

An early example of a cursed problem is the Cantor Function. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_function&ved=2ahUKEwjY9LCEkM7zAhWcJzQIHaUdCVMQFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0qCchQBt0y3TxA9RZnYyO6

I admire whoever wrote the description of the curve in the "cursed" panel. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 05:36, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

"Algebreic" is a misspelling of "algebraic". Could Randall really have made this mistake, or is it another malamanteu? What does "breic" come from? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:10, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall was actually referring to that quote about "Into the Woods", or he just thought "Sondheim calculus" sounded cool and it was a total coincidence. I found it when I googled "sondheim calculus" to make sure it wasn't a real thing. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:29, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

In panel 2, what would 'k' be? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.108|172.69.35.108]] 08:00, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

'k' would represent the number of marbles placed on the ground. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.127|162.158.88.127]] 08:09, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2530: Clinical Trials

Talk:2529: Unsolved Math Problems