Table 4.

Errors in Chalmers’ presentation of the Karlowski (1975) trial results.

	Ascorbic Acid		Placebo
	No. of Subjects	Mean Duration (Days)	No. of Subjects	Mean Duration (Days)	Difference in Duration (Days)
Chalmers (1975) review [82]:
Karlowski (1974)	101	6.80	89	6.30	+0.50
Correct data [33,34]:
Karlowski (1975)	57	5.92	46	7.14	−1.22 (p = 0.046)

In the Chalmers (1975) review, half of the Karlowski (1975) trial “placebo group” participants were actually vitamin C participants (43 of the 89). The common cold duration in Chalmers’ “placebo” group was actually the mean of two vitamin C groups [86]. Correct data shows the findings for the 3 + 3 g/day and 0 + 0 g/d (placebo) groups. All four groups are shown in Figure 1, and analyzed in [47].