“There was no control group at all.”
I don’t think you know what a control group is .
I took the first definition I found ” the standard to which comparisons are made in an experiment” Whenever you do an experiment, without a control group -you can’t compare anything. If I want to experiment: does bleach clean clothes? The first question would be compared to what? you can compare bleach to water, to doing nothing , to another brand of bleach or to dipping it in mud. but just asking “Does bleach clean clothes, not compared to anything else” is meaningless from an experimental standpoint.
with me so far?
You asked “if we gave anyone who asked for it hydroxychloroquine, and then the amount of deaths fell by 50% ”
When you say “deaths fell by 100%” compared to what? That is meaningless without comparing it to anything.
Now what you mean (I assume) is compared to before they took the HCQ. So THERE is your control. You have “every single Homo Sapiens” serving as BOTH your experiment (once they take HCQ) AND your control (before they took it) Sure there are limitations in this study (and for argument’s sake I’ll assuem there is some sort of biological plauisibility to taking it one day and death rate droppign the next) . and I defer any calculations regarding the p value, to statisticians. but at first glance that seems compelling .
Dr.. Z has 405 patients who took HCQ and did well . compared to what? did they do better than they did bthe day before? (I don’t think thats what hes claiming) did they do better than another 405 people who didnt get HCQ? which ones There are tens of thousands who got didn’t get HCQ and did just as well. So Who are we comparing Dr. Z’ experimental group to
(the next question will be seeing if they are comparable, but first WHO are they being compared to?
when I say bleach cleans clothes, compared to what?