Ground Truth Challenge results: Update!

Better Skeptics -

Remember those two challenges last week, that we marked as inconclusive? After a week-long window asking for additional evidence, we have now classified an updated form of the challenges – the steelmanned form if you like -- as successful.

What's the deal? When we wrote our first overview of the results, we found that in the case of two of the claims that had failed our Ground Truth Challenge, the evidence provided by both the challengers and responses was not satisfactory (in our view).

After calling for new evidence, we have updated the discussions and come to the conclusion that both of these challenges provided effective counter-arguments or refutations to the target quotes.

You can find the updated report with full details, here.

The challenges in question are:

  • #2: on whether 'traditional' vaccines don't spread outside of the injection site as stated by Steve Kirsch on the DarkHorse Podcast. The evidence supplied by the original challenge was not adequate to come to a conclusion, but the responses provided similarly left a lot to be desired. New responses and additional research have led us to conclude that the target quote is incorrect as it stands. New result: Falsified during final review.
  • #10: on whether usage of Ivermectin in Zimbabwe was "widespread" prior to the drop in COVID cases, as mentioned by Dr Pierre Kory on the Joe Rogan podcast. This challenge had been submitted as a falsification, which is likely why it failed the second round, as the evidence provided doesn't falsify it. However, after soliciting and reviewing additional evidence, we believe the balance is in the middle: There is circumstantial evidence to support that there was a hype surrounding IVM in Zimbabwe in January, and that people were taking it and getting it prescribed by doctors, prior to its official authorization on Jan. 26. That said, the quote makes a very strong claim of “widespread use” and we feel the evidence available isn’t fully sufficient to support this.

That's it for the results of this challenge! We hope to be back shortly with an update on what we've learnt, and what we would improve for subsequent challenges.

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