624 - The "Youngest Science:" Debates over Evidence During the Pandemic Within Medicine
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
In the frenzy of research for COVID-19 prevention and treatment, there were many disagreements about what really did—or didn't—work. The nature of the debates reveals a broader problem in how data are interpreted in medicine. Dr. Arturo Casadevall and Dr. Josh Sharfstein discuss the nature of evidence and Dr. Casadevall's new paper, Misinterpretation of Clinical Research Findings and COVID-19 Mortality. You can read the paper here: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/M23-0737?af=R
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.u.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:32.0 | This is Lindsay Smith Rogers. |
| 0:34.6 | Today, a discussion about the nature of evidence between Johns Hopkins faculty, Dr. Arturo |
| 0:39.6 | Casa de Val, and Dr. Josh Starstein. Their starting point is a recent article by Dr. Casa |
| 0:44.9 | de Val published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, in which he criticizes how medicine, |
| 0:50.6 | the quote, youngest science, decides what data matter the most. Let's listen. |
| 0:58.2 | Dr. Arturo Casa de Val, thank you for joining me in Public Health on Call, to talk about |
| 1:03.2 | a challenging topic, which is why everyone seemed to disagree so much about data during the pandemic. |
| 1:11.6 | And let me just set the stage here. |
| 1:14.6 | Even today, people disagree on what works and what doesn't work for treating COVID-19. |
| 1:20.6 | Some people disagree on what works for preventing COVID-19, such as to what extent the masks work, there is a lot of argument back and forth. |
| 1:30.8 | And it seems like every time a study comes out, everybody runs to one particular conclusion |
| 1:36.3 | and then maybe they run to another conclusion. |
| 1:38.7 | I know you've thought a lot about evidence and COVID-19. |
| 1:43.6 | So where should we start? |
| 1:45.6 | Well, we can start, as you know, Josh, |
| 1:48.6 | I'm primarily a science-based physician scientist. |
| 1:52.3 | I run a lab. |
| 1:53.1 | I run a basic science department. |
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