LogFAQs > #970752418

wpot posted...

I think the main thing we aren't connecting on is the difference between doing a study for one case (which is usually not terribly useful for the individual, usually not very interesting scientifically, and frankly not possible to do for anything close to every difficult case due to the resources needed) and doing a study that covers many people in relation to a specific factor (which is being done constantly). We cannot do a large number of detailed studies of individuals to address their individual issues. We CAN do large studies of many individuals to address the issues that are regularly seen in them. Statistics can't be removed from the process in a world of eight billion people.

In most cases science, even now - three years in to a pandemic - can give a good answer in most cases. They can - even now - warn people who are at high risk. Will we ever be able to do so with near certainty for ALL cases? No, that's impossible given the near infinite numbers of causal interactions. That is true of both COVID and any other disease. The more we study the better we will know and the quicker we'll be able to identify causes, but expecting diagnosis perfection isn't reasonable.

That is the medical mystery that we need to solve. In most cases the old will die and the young will live. But in those cases where the opposite happens, we need to know why.