Dear journalists and
-tweeters, please don't write definitive sounding stuff from single studies—especially when the claim is bold—without waiting for the scientific community to react and also without noting limitations the *authors* point out themselves. It's been ten months!https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1333647449987063809 …
-
Show this thread
-
There's been *so much* damage from media outlets rushing to publish definitive sounding articles with bold headlines from what are kinda-maybe-let's see articles or papers with issues that soon get interpreted better—and then all the sensationalist twitter accounts amplifying it.
1 reply 19 retweets 144 likesShow this thread -
It's been ten months. Just stop please. The bolder the claim, the more time, context and evaluation is necessary. People are quick to spot other kinds of misinformation problems *over there* but this one is widespread *over here* among people who believe they are not misinformed.
5 replies 12 retweets 115 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @zeynep
The counterpoint to this is that decisive action on incomplete information is a necessary part of a fast-moving crisis. I'm tired of seeing scientists asking for 95% certainty instead of 60% to make a recommendation, waiting 6 months, and then being too late to do any good.
1 reply 2 retweets 2 likes
Agreed. But there's a way to do that without this. The opposite of "where is the perfect RCT if it's missing let's not take sensible steps with a lot of evidence" isn't pedal-to-the-metal reporting or tweeting. If anything, the latter hurts attempts to correct the former.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.