Thanks Anastasis. I don't know who Derek Lowe is, but this is an exceptional read. I like the approach he took to explain his rationale and it serves as yet another exhibit in how complicated this disease is, how much is still undetermined about the nature of this virus related to its effects on humans, and how to attack it (or prevent it) with vaccines and pharmacotherapy. The explanation of dexamethasone is particularly useful. People who don't understand this stuff (media types and politicos) jump to erroneous conclusions and it leads to dumb statements like bashing Sanjay Gupta or even Fauci. BTW, all scientists (including the smartest, best trained ones) are wrong some of the time due to the fact that we rarely have data generated by trials that are randomized and that control for all the confounding variables (like blood type, or even the amount of virus inoculum, ie, dose of the virus). That's why we rate the evidence based on study designs and we inform future studies based on emerging evidence. The process takes a very long time, which sucks because this virus is unique and had been unheard of until late last year.
But let's face it, some scientists have taken some unorthodox positions during this pandemic, which has only worsened the crisis. There has been an attack on science, and the recent events almost seem like science itself has called for a reckoning.