Amulets may prevent Covid-19, says a paper in Elsevier journal. (They don’t.)

retractionwatch.com

15 pointsnradov5 comments

This blog post does a great job unpacking this paper:

@“Do Nephrite-Jade amulets help prevent COVID-19?” by Mike Pole https://link.medium.com/4f0s7ywe6ab

This would make a great back-story to an Armageddon/Day After Tomorrow type film.

Reading the title, one could claim there is some form of placebo effect. But in reality, the actual paper content is much much worse.

IIUC they had some rats in two rooms, and most of the ill rats were in one room. But they didn't put an amulet of relevant mineral in the cages of one room and use the other room as a control group.

I don't even understand how the rats are related to the discussion about the mineral. Also, it is not clear that the rats got another type or coronavirus.

Is the full paper available online? I was not able to find it.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972...

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