There is recent article entitled: COVID Vaccine Hesitancy and Risk of a Traffic Crash. The study looks and smells like a huge propaganda piece! If articles like this are let through the nets of the peer review in some of the major journals (AJM), will it be possible to restore trust in science and medicine after COVID 19?
Link to the full article:
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(22)00822-1/fulltext
I threw my eyes to heaven reading the title, but there's a certain amount of interest in identifying characteristics that predispose to crashes and, by extension, other events that have an important component of human behaviour and significant health consequences.
The trouble is that in research, there's a simple equation that says width multiplied by depth is a constant. Really wide studies with millions of observations tend to have a depth that's monomolecular – or, in lay terms, entirely superficial.
But taken in the context of smaller, deeper studies on personality traits and outcomes like crashes, especially interesting work being done on the so-called "dark triad" personalities, this study is a small piece of a jigsaw.
I've seen much, much worse stuff published during Covid!
Ronán Michael Conroy Thanks for your contribution. You mention some great points. Unfortunately, I think the study in question was craftily designed and worded in a way that should drive readers to an erroneous conclusion. That.s very dangerous! For instance, a yahoo finance article has interpreted the study exactly the way it was presented, in this article: "People who skipped their COVID vaccine are at higher risk of traffic accidents, according to a new study (yahoo.com)" https://finance.yahoo.com/news/people-skipped-covid-vaccine-higher-183148392.html
Studies like this one really need a good science communications office that will prepare a press release. I cringe every time I imagine a journalist reading a scientific paper!
Ronán Michael Conroy I agree! Science communication skills should be taught at all scientific organizations. More, importantly, I think all science students should be required to take undergrad and graduate courses on the philosophy of science.
This study needs to be replicated in other setting like in low income countries. The fear or the stress about the COVID-19 pandemic would have made an effect.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Disease
- Infectious Diseases