Remdesivir and COVID-19 ~Remdesivir is a drug that was developed to treat viral infections. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted during the months of February, March, and April, 2020 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of remdesivir in adults hospitalized with COVID-19.Researchers examined the results of 1,063 participants who were given either daily treatment of remdesivir delivered intravenously or an intravenous placebo. The variable of primary interest to the researchers was time to recovery of the patient measured in days.Initial results from the study show that remdesivir accelerates recovery from COVID-19.
1.Do the paragraphs above describe an observational study or an experiment?
A. Observational Study
B. Experiment
2.Match each aspect of the study to the appropriate statistical term. Note, you won’t use all the available phrases from the right column.
? A B C D E F G H I
1.
Control group
? A B C D E F G H I
2.
Cases
? A B C D E F G H I
3.
Response variable
? A B C D E F G H I
4.
Population of interest
? A B C D E F G H I
5.
Treatment group
? A B C D E F G H I
6.
Explanatory variable
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A.
Whether remdesivir is an effective medication for COVID-19 or not
B.
The number of days to recovery
C.
Patients who received intravenous placebo
D.
Whether the patient received remdesivir or a placebo
E.
Patients with COVID-19
F.
Patients who received intravenous remdesivir
G.
February, March, and April of 2020
H.
1,063 study participants
I.
Whether the patient had COVID-19 or not
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3.For each of the elements that are mentioned in the description of the clinical trial, match to the reason why researchers included it.
? A B C D E
1.
Randomization
? A B C D E
2.
Inclusion of a placebo
? A B C D E
3.
Double-blind
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A.
To reduce unconscious bias when evaluating a patient's response to either treatment or control
B.
To accurately predict the results of the study
C.
To evenly distribute confounding factors in both the treatment and control groups
D.
To evenly distribute the effect of psychological response to the idea of medical treatment
E.
To confuse the study participants
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4.Based on the results of this study can we conclude that Remdesivir decreases the number of days to recovery for COVID-19 patients? Select Yes or No and a reason for your choice. ? Yes No because
A. This observational study shows an association between days to recovery and Remdesivir, but can't establish causation.
B. Controlled experiments allow us to infer causal relationships.
C. A sample size of 1,063 participants is too small to make any firm conclusion.
D. Participants did not choose whether or not they came into contact with the virus that causes COVID-19.