you’re right, pre-registration is very useful, that study does make me less confident in zinc and this advice. I appreciate the addition.
Something that may not be obvious is that when I say “here’s this cochrane review/meta-analysis”, I expect readers on LW and my own blog to be well-calibrated on how strong that evidence is (not very). This was not an attempt to make a conclusive case for Zinc, but to suggest a particular use case to people I knew were already sold on the general benefits (plausibly wrongly- and I think they would all appreciate it if someone did a more comprehensive review).
Cochrane reviews in particular are actually, like, literally, the gold standard for medical reviews. They are notorious for finding that “there is weak or no evidence”. So them finding positive is not “well calibrated for not very”, which is why I was genuinely shocked to read that, and correctly found it wasn’t.
you’re right, pre-registration is very useful, that study does make me less confident in zinc and this advice. I appreciate the addition.
Something that may not be obvious is that when I say “here’s this cochrane review/meta-analysis”, I expect readers on LW and my own blog to be well-calibrated on how strong that evidence is (not very). This was not an attempt to make a conclusive case for Zinc, but to suggest a particular use case to people I knew were already sold on the general benefits (plausibly wrongly- and I think they would all appreciate it if someone did a more comprehensive review).
Cochrane reviews in particular are actually, like, literally, the gold standard for medical reviews. They are notorious for finding that “there is weak or no evidence”. So them finding positive is not “well calibrated for not very”, which is why I was genuinely shocked to read that, and correctly found it wasn’t.
Is there some material I can read on the case for zinc? On this site?