Fig. 2

Visual representations of AE data for case study 1—randomised controlled trial of remdesivir in adults with severe COVID-19. a Volcano plot for adverse events (in ≥ 2% of patients in any arm) between two treatment arms from Wang et al. [22]. The x-axis represents the difference in proportions of participants experiencing each adverse event between the treatment arms (intervention–placebo). The y-axis represents the p value from Fisher’s exact test on the −log10 scale. The centre of the bubble indicates the coordinates for each adverse event. The size of the bubble is proportional to the total number of events for both treatment arms combined. Colour saturation is used to indicate the strength of the treatment effect with red indicating greater risk in the intervention arm and blue indicating greater risk in the placebo arm. Colour saturation corresponds to the −log10(p value) for each event. Labels are added to events where they suggest asymmetry. b Dot plot for adverse events (in ≥ 2% of patients in any arm) between two treatment arms. The left side of the figure displays the percentage of participants experiencing an adverse event (labelled on the y-axis) in the intervention arm with a red triangle and placebo arm with a blue circle. The right side of the figure displays the relative risk and corresponding 95% confidence interval on the log10 scale