https://www.nbcnews.com/health/h ... it-doctors-n1243730"Dr. Andre Kalil, a principal investigator for the NIH trial at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said the Solidarity trial lacked some of the basics critical to scientific research: "No data monitoring, no placebo, no double-blinding, no diagnostic confirmation of infection."
"Poor-quality study design cannot be fixed by a large sample size, no matter how large it is," Kalil told NBC News.
Outside experts also said it's no surprise that the drug didn't appear to benefit the sickest patients. Remdesivir is an antiviral medication. Like Tamiflu for influenza, antivirals generally are more effective when given early in the course of illness."
"Wolfe also expressed frustration that the WHO released the findings as a preprint, as opposed to a peer-reviewed study.
A preprint "was probably OK in January or February when we really had a public health emergency and wanted to disseminate critical information quickly," he said, adding, "We're moving to a space now in which changing standard of care by press release is a really dangerous precedent."
"The highest-quality data that we have published anywhere still says that remdesivir is effective," Wolfe said."
