With all the talk of anti-viral drug research in the news, I thought I’d amuse you with a little drug research paradox attributed to briton Edward Hugh Simpson, but noticed earlier by scotsman George Udny Yule.
Two drugs are being compared. In a trial in Hospital A, the results favour Drug 1 as follows:
In a further trial in Hospital B, the results the results also favour Drug 1 as follows:
Somebody has the idea of combining the two tables. Now it is Drug 2 that heads the effectiveness stakes!
As Mark Twain noted: There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Asynchronists 