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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Placebos CANNOT cause cancer!!!
Message-ID: <2522@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Jun-85 00:10:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.2522
Posted: Tue Jun  4 00:10:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Jun-85 04:49:24 EDT
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Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
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Methinks he doth protest too much.

Science would never progress if it expended all its energy trying to
rule out one-in-a-million chances.  Granted, a few things might get
missed over the years, but if we spent our time straining at gnats, no
progress at all would occur--which in the long run may have a far
worse effect than prematurely accepting a discovery as fact.  At least
in the latter case the mistake will probably come to light eventually.

It's the old economic law of diminishing returns, and isn't peculiar
to science or medicine.  There is no such thing as a ``perfect''
study, and no such thing as statistical certainty.  The idea is to
reach reasonable certainty, and then move on, trying to build on what
came before.  We don't have forever, and at least in medicine, lives
depend on timely solutions.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall