As I wrote in January of this year, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is updated every three months (“on a quarterly basis” as they put it—they mean “quarterly”). Two recent […]
Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Pseudonymy
Have you ever used a pseudonym? There are many reasons for doing so. The word “pseudonym” comes from two Greek words: the combining form ψευδο- or ψευδ- before a vowel, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Power
Last week I outlined some basic pharmacokinetic principles that can inform the likelihood that a newly proposed treatment may be effective, given only in vitro evidence. I showed that the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Movements
My column on ivermectin, published two weeks ago, has elicited a few comments, mostly pseudonymous. This prompts me to outline some relevant pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles, starting with the former. […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Choosing treatments for covid-19
Since SARS-CoV-2 started causing covid-19 many different treatments have been studied, with varying degrees of success, mostly none. An incomplete list of pharmacological interventions that have been registered in clinical […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Ivermectin
The Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 2015 was awarded for two pharmacological discoveries: Tu Youyou’s discovery of the efficacy in malaria of qinghao, Artemisia annua, the source of […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Retractions, withdrawals, and archives
Last week I drew a distinction between publications that had been retracted after publication and those that had been withdrawn. Although the two words literally mean “drawn back” one should […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Withdrawn
Correction added 24 June 2020: The original hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin preprint paper mentioned in this article can still be viewed at https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.05.20088757v1?versioned=true Some articles get retracted. Some get withdrawn. […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Benefits, harms, and three tales of retractions
Here are three tales of retractions and a puzzle. A tale of apparent benefit In a tweet on 16 April, the prolific Professor Mandeep R Mehra, whose 2020 PubMed record […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Retraction
The retraction yesterday of two publications, one in The Lancet and one in the New England Journal of Medicine, reflects a current major problem with research into the management of […]