Seconds out! Round one! Ding ding! And other boxing terms. We’ve found a topic on which Tom and Stuart actually disagree. Kind of. In this episode of The Studies Show, they use the examples of “the worm wars” (does deworming kids in developing countries help them stay in school?) and a new craze for “tooth bacteria” (can colonizing your mouth with a genetically-modified bacterium stop you getting cavities?) to argue about how we should make our minds up about uncertain—but potentially promising—medical treatments.
The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine. On the show this week we discuss one of the articles in their newest issue, on “the end of lead”—the history of countries slowly removing lead from pipes, paint, and the rest, and how much work still needs to be done. Find it, and a wealth of other fascinating free articles, at worksinprogress.co.
Show notes
Tom’s Unherd article about the Worm Wars
The famous 2004 paper that sparked the wars
“Deworming Debunked”, from the BMJ
The 2014 follow-up of the original dewormed Kenyan kids
GiveWell’s re-analysis of both studies
And another more recent analysis by the same org
2019 paper on “resolving the worm wars”
Scott Alexander’s article on “defying cavity”—on the Lumina bacteria
Guy who claims the Lumina bacteria made him go blind
Saloni Dattani’s useful thread on Lumina
90% of drugs in preclinical trials don’t make it to become medicine
Tom’s frankly cruel tweet where he refers to Stuart as “Goofus”
Credits
The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.
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