If you're citing Krystal Ball to make a claim--correlation does not mean causation--you're on shaky ground. For methodologists--I am one--this bit of trivia sounds impressive but is meaningless. In fact, correlation is a requirement of causation (unless a third variable carries the effect), and the real task is ruling out alternate expla…
If you're citing Krystal Ball to make a claim--correlation does not mean causation--you're on shaky ground. For methodologists--I am one--this bit of trivia sounds impressive but is meaningless. In fact, correlation is a requirement of causation (unless a third variable carries the effect), and the real task is ruling out alternate explanations to the one RFK prefers. Something explains the meteoric rise in autism. I am not, to be clear, arguing that vaccines cause autism, which I think unlikely, but that this debate must be conducted at a considerably higher level than Krystal Ball or the author here can muster.
RFK has raised important questions, and we are all better off having them answered by people with a sophisticated methodological understanding of the matters at hand. Articles like this simply reprise received knowledge and reinforce the sanctions for diverging from it.
If you're citing Krystal Ball to make a claim--correlation does not mean causation--you're on shaky ground. For methodologists--I am one--this bit of trivia sounds impressive but is meaningless. In fact, correlation is a requirement of causation (unless a third variable carries the effect), and the real task is ruling out alternate explanations to the one RFK prefers. Something explains the meteoric rise in autism. I am not, to be clear, arguing that vaccines cause autism, which I think unlikely, but that this debate must be conducted at a considerably higher level than Krystal Ball or the author here can muster.
RFK has raised important questions, and we are all better off having them answered by people with a sophisticated methodological understanding of the matters at hand. Articles like this simply reprise received knowledge and reinforce the sanctions for diverging from it.