With the number of people infected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) rising every day, scientists are working around the clock to find ways to effectively treat the virus. Since antibiotics don’t work against viruses, the body’s immune system must typically fight them off until they run their course. This is challenging when symptoms become severe, as in some cases of the novel coronavirus.

While new medicines are being developed to fight COVID-19, doctors are currently relying on a range of existing medicines to treat infected patients. One study looked at the effects on remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine on the efficacy against the virus.

50 COVID positive patients at Memorial Hermann are randomly assigned to receive either remdesivir or hydroxychloroquine. After 5 days of continuous treatment, the patients are then evaluated for improvement.

Part (a) Was this a study an experiment or an observational study? Explain.

Part (b) When the data were analyzed, remdesivir was shown to be have more statistically significant improvement than the hydroxychloroquine. Based on this result, would the researchers be justified in concluding that a 5 day continuous remdesivir treatment is as effective as a month long treatment of hydroxychloroquine?

Part (c) Another researcher believes this study would have been better as a randomized block design. Describe an aspect that you could block on, explain why you would block on that aspect, and give a statistical advantage to blocki