re: Nobel prize 'horse paste' that costs 3c/dose reduces Covid death by 70%, infections by 44%

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Explain how impact factor affects the validity of the paper.

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I'll assume this is an honest question and not a half arse dig. theoretically it doesn't, realistically it does.

impact factor is a gauge of how much weight the journal has to the scientific community. The lower the impact, the lower its importance to the general community. That's not to say a low impact is bad. if youre in a very small field, lets say, the research involving left pinky fingers, you will likely be publishing in journals about left pinkies. the world in general, doesnt give a shite, or atleast, not a lot of shits about left pinkies. You could publish the most profound article on left pinkies in the history of left pinkies, but more than likely, youre going to still have a low impact.

now lets look the topic at hand. Infectious disease. kinda a big topic right? COVID to boot, also, right now, kinda a hot topic no? So if these articles were actually worth a damn, dont you think a journal with higher impact would be interested? Nature, probably the most influential scientific publication has an impact of 50.

then lets specifically talk about the 3rd article. published in an online journal with almost no impact. these are circle jerking communities who will publish literally anything. often times the authors themselves pay to have it published. they are simply facets for people to pad their CV and anyone with half a brain who see's something like that knows to immediately toss it into the trash bin.