Two docs talk LIVE about the dangers of medical black & white thinking when it comes to COVID-19.

We talked Danish Mask Study, Thanksgiving public health absolutism and harm reduction strategies, the latest ways to think about the new COVID vaccines, scientific censorship, political polarization in science, Dr. Scott Atlas, and much more.

Vinay Prasad MD MPH is a practicing hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He studies cancer drugs, health policy, and clinical trials and better decision making. He is author of these academic articles, and the books Ending Medical Reversal(2015), and Malignant(2020). He hosts the oncology podcast Plenary Session, and runs a YouTube Channel VinayPrasadMDMPH. He tweets @VPrasadMDMPH.

Here are all the other episodes we’ve done with Vinay!

Timestamps: 00:00:0100:01:30 Intro

00:01:3100:06:22 Danish masks study – nuance vs noise

00:06:2300:08:33 Case for cluster randomised trials to find masks efficacy

00:08:3400:12:47 More about politics and science surrounding Danish study

00:12:4800:17:38 Curious case of Scott Atlas

00:17:3900:19:50 Problem with making Facebook the arbiter of information

00:19:5100:22:14 Covid is bringing the issues with established research practices to the fore

00:22:1500:22:58 Public health policy needs input from all concerned, not just medical science

00:22:5900:24:20 Poor policy induced social exhaustion

00:24:2100:26:35 Science needs to be interpreted through values to make policy

00:26:3600:29:18 Personal circumstances determining perspectives

00:29:1900:32:41 Thanksgivings strategy – absolutism vs pragmatism

00:32:4200:33:31 Harm reduction

00:33:3200:35:53 Tailored social media manipulation

00:35:5400:36:44 Pushing the minds to the edge

00:36:4500:37:50 Twitter turns bored folks (including scientists) into fumbling buffoons

00:37:5100:40:14 Trump’s reverse manipulation

00:40:1500:41:27 Alternative middle view

00:41:2800:43:57 Illiberal follies of the left

00:43:5800:44:56 Bottomless belly of the outrage junkies

00:44:5700:48:08 JAMA and tribal badges

00:48:0900:49:43 Hydroxychloroquine episode

00:49:4400:50:19 Not impossible to keep personal politics and science separate

00:50:2000:56:08 Perils of premature grouping

00:56:0901:08:25 Vaccines progress and comparison

01:08:2601:09:12 Smart study designs

01:09:1301:11:40 Skin in the game

01:11:4101:13:00 Vaccination prioritisation

01:13:0101:14:40 Covid-19 prevalence speculation

01:14:4101:16:12 Should low risk folks should get vaccinated?

01:16:1301:17:40 Mandating vaccine would presumably be unnecessary

01:17:4101:21:12 Current medical training absurdities

01:21:1301:23:10 Closing rituals