Yes, yes, there is. It’s experimentally confirmed to reduce fever in RCT studies, even if it wasn’t obvious the first time you take it. Sadly, the theoretical basis for its action is still sorely lacking. So, while the effect has plenty of scientific evidence, the reasons behind it do not have much, as far as I know.
This meta-analysis says that paracetamol is effective at reducing fever in a short time, but doesn’t seem to accelerate fever clearance in a statistically significant way. So it depends on what you mean by “reducing fever”; as short-term impact on fever is usually considered a secondary outcome in these studies.
It’s true that the mechanism of action is not well understood. However, depending on exactly how you interpret the claim above, it might be true that there is “scientific evidence” for it, or it might not be. Ditto for a claim such as “racial group differences in IQ tests are genetic”. What exactly are we talking about when we make this claim?
Yeah, Ege Erdil’s analogy is unlikely to work out, because the innate race/intelligence hypothesis is actually quite complicated. It’s not just asserting that genetic differences between races cause IQ differences between races, but also that these differences are not mediated by stuff like racism.
I think most who promote it would also go further and say that it is not mediated by high-level psychological stuff like interests, which is definitely a stop where I jump off and say that I haven’t seen evidence for.
What’s “scientific evidence”? Is there scientific evidence that paracetamol helps with fever, for example?
Yes, yes, there is. It’s experimentally confirmed to reduce fever in RCT studies, even if it wasn’t obvious the first time you take it. Sadly, the theoretical basis for its action is still sorely lacking. So, while the effect has plenty of scientific evidence, the reasons behind it do not have much, as far as I know.
This meta-analysis says that paracetamol is effective at reducing fever in a short time, but doesn’t seem to accelerate fever clearance in a statistically significant way. So it depends on what you mean by “reducing fever”; as short-term impact on fever is usually considered a secondary outcome in these studies.
It’s true that the mechanism of action is not well understood. However, depending on exactly how you interpret the claim above, it might be true that there is “scientific evidence” for it, or it might not be. Ditto for a claim such as “racial group differences in IQ tests are genetic”. What exactly are we talking about when we make this claim?
Yeah, Ege Erdil’s analogy is unlikely to work out, because the innate race/intelligence hypothesis is actually quite complicated. It’s not just asserting that genetic differences between races cause IQ differences between races, but also that these differences are not mediated by stuff like racism.
I think most who promote it would also go further and say that it is not mediated by high-level psychological stuff like interests, which is definitely a stop where I jump off and say that I haven’t seen evidence for.
I don’t think this is the case, because actually the claim “paracetamol helps with fever” is fairly underdetermined.
Scientific evidence.
Yes.