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You seem to be responding as if I claimed that population-level correlational studies are bad, or that I claimed that air pollution is not bad for you. But I did not claim either of those things.

What I claimed is that this press release takes a population-level correlational study and presents it in a misleading way that implies causation was established. Which this press release most certainly does.

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The correlation != causation argument at large is usually a sophomoric dismal of valuable data, and I’d rather see discussion on the data or specifics to research methodology then this meta criticism.

Ultimately both exaggerating pop-sci articles and dismissive comments are contributing to public distrust of science.

Maybe the thought-terminating cliche should be posted as a comment by a bot at the top of every submission so there's a home for this sort of complaint.

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