[pidge]

Unfortunately there’s not a control arm here. Looks like maybe original design was to determine effect of the additive as treatment, with sodium bicarbonate as the control. But both arms were significantly different than the population average, leading to this publication.

Given that it’s hard to know if selection bias slipped in anywhere, for example during recruiting:

> During the study period, 826 unique patients aged 55 and older were eligible to be contacted within 24 hours of a positive PCR; 79 were able to be enrolled and receive irrigation materials on the day of contact.