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Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

This is wonderfully fun stuff to read:

This is from ivmmeta.com, part of a sprawling empire of big professional-looking sites promoting unorthodox coronavirus treatments. I have no idea who runs it - they’ve very reasonably kept their identity secret - but my hat is off to them...Putting aside the question of accuracy and grading only on presentation and scale, this is the most impressive act of science communication I have ever seen.

I asked a few questions previously on HN about Ivermectin and got answers that killed my interest in the topic (because I don't think it is relevant). But this piece is a delight.

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I want to know who's behind those sites, the fact that nobody knows who's behind them is shady. Or is having sites pushing meta-studies about anything normal and I just missed it?

Is it so shady to mask your identity when so many people have been crucified for even hinting ivermectin might be beneficial?

like who?

Joe rogan, aaron rodgers?

Those two guys seem to be doing just fine.

The paragraph you quoted is, alone, pretty much enough to dismiss this entire article outright. It shows such a reckless disregard for critical thinking that it is impossible to trust anything that comes after it.

He sees a slick and well-presented site on a topic that is not only politically fraught, but well known to have a massive propaganda effort behind it, and he just completely refuses to even consider questioning it as a source? That is reckless beyond words.

He uses the site as list of studies to review, and throughout the article lays out why the site itself is not a reliable source.

> It shows such a reckless disregard for critical thinking that it is impossible to trust anything that comes after it.

I don't think that paragraph is as complimentary as you do.

I am referring to this bit in particular: "I have no idea who runs it - they’ve very reasonably kept their identity secret"

Right—it's like saying "I don't know who the bank robber was—they've very reasonably kept their identity secret." Sure, it's reasonable for a bank robber to get keep their identity secret, because they're doing something shady.

Yeah, that would be a kind of weird thing to say. Like, that specific phrasing. If you wanted to say that, you would not phrase it like that.

The paragraph quoted is making a point about how to effectively present and communicate scientific topics, not ascribing dependability.

Indeed, the entire article is a systematic rebuttal of ivmmeta's claims. Rebuttals are more convincing if you treat the topic in good faith rather than assuming fraud from the outset.

I don't understand how you can see this as "reckless beyond words" when it seems like exactly the sort of systematic analysis that we need more of.

You quoted this, but don't seem to have understood it:

> Putting aside the question of accuracy and grading only on presentation and scale

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