[2006alum]

Excellent and helpful analysis, BC, thank you. One quick follow-up: the pros and cons of an 8-point ordinal rating scale vs. days to recovery would presumably have been known to the researchers prior to launching the study, so do you have any insights as to why they would change midway through? I suppose my skepticism is that if it doesn't change outcomes but reduces recovery time for those who fully recover, then changing the primary endpoint would yield a more straightforward benefit from remdesivir. That's not nothing, but it does strike me as somewhat strange to change horses mid-race when the pros and cons of those horses were known out of the starting gate.

[2006alum]

Excellent and helpful analysis, BC, thank you. One quick follow-up: the pros and cons of an 8-point ordinal rating scale vs. days to recovery would presumably have been known to the researchers prior to launching the study, so do you have any insights as to why they would change midway through? I suppose my skepticism is that if it doesn't change outcomes but reduces recovery time for those who fully recover, then changing the primary endpoint would yield a more straightforward benefit from remdesivir. That's not nothing, but it does strike me as somewhat strange to change horses mid-race when the pros and cons of those horses were known out of the starting gate.