Improving Nature’s Randomized Control Trial
Does a higher body mass index (BMI) increase the severity of COVID-19 symptoms? Mendelian randomization is one method that can be used to study this question without worrying about unmeasured variables (e.g., weight, height, or sex) that could affect the results. A recent paper published in the Annals of Statistics developed a new technique for Mendelian randomization which improves the ability to measure cause-and-effect relationships.