How an illusion of efficacy can be established for any treatment

In this video, Norman Fenton explains how to create the illusion of high efficacy for a treatment with no efficacy at all. This example features a placebo in place of a vaccine and compares the manipulation of numbers to create the appearance of efficacy. Don’t miss it!

“In determining the efficacy of a medical intervention (such as a drug or vaccine) to stop a particular disease or virus it is typical to assume that the treatment needs time to work before a person is classified as ‘treated.’ For example, a person vaccinated against a virus may be classified as ‘unvaccinated’ until 2 weeks after getting the vaccination. This simple animation with a hypothetical example shows that, with such a classification, a placebo (i.e. no effect) vaccination can be shown to be highly effective. See also this article for more context and note that this applies to observational studies rather than randomized controlled trials.”