It's a bit improper to mix results from observational studies and controlled studies together to show a reduction of cancer rate and so on. Such studies are made in completely different conditions, it's like mixing apples and oranges and telling you the total in bananas.
Plus, we'd need to seriously look at how patients were sampled and all in both arms of the control study. This kind of article is obviously written by someone who knows nothing about the science of clinical trials, which is a bit of a shame. Tabloid level, really.
You're joking right? The fact that it even mentions the terms randomized and observational puts it in the 99th percentile of medical science reporting.
And why can't you combine results from observational studies and controlled studies? Surely they both provide evidence (albiet very weak evidence in the former's case) of the effect.
Observational is not considered as evidence. At best, it gives you cues to conduct a next research (randomized, double-blind, controlled) in order to actually do Science.
There are tons of observational studies that tell sh*t like there are correlations between eating cabbage and having great long hair, but most of the time it's pure luck, sample bias, or just error range.
Observational studies are NEVER accepted as sufficient to claim anything with authorities. At the most you can exercise caution based on risks observed in Safety observational studies, but when it comes to proving efficacy ... you will raise major criticism.
And just putting "observational" and "randomized" does not mean he understands the terms. When you write "Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug" without substantial evidence in your article, without dissociating observational and randomized results, I have a hard time believing this is from a science-educated person.
Plus, we'd need to seriously look at how patients were sampled and all in both arms of the control study. This kind of article is obviously written by someone who knows nothing about the science of clinical trials, which is a bit of a shame. Tabloid level, really.