‘Thus far in the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve observed that therapeutic management has often been initiated and altered on the basis of individual case reports and physician opinion, rather than of randomized trials. In these uncertain times, physicians fall prey to cognitive error and unconsciously rely on limited experiences, whether their own or others’, instead of scientific inquiry. We believe that physicians should be acting in concert with clinical equipoise. We should be skeptical of any purported therapeutic strategy until enough statistical evidence is gathered that would convince any “open-minded clinician informed of the results” that one treatment is superior to another.
‘We are living through an unprecedented biopsychosocial crisis; physicians must be the voice of reason and lead by example. We must reason critically and reflect on the biases that may influence our thinking processes, critically appraise evidence in deciding how to treat patients, and use anecdotal observations only to generate hypotheses for trials that can be conducted with clinical equipoise. We must act swiftly but carefully, with caution and reason.’
Read here (New England Journal of Medicine, April 28, 2020)
