Clinical perspective, offered as context rather than as advice. It helps to ask what evidence would change your mind before you look at any. If nothing would, the discussion is not about evidence, and it is better to say so early than to spend nine posts discovering it.

quinn_sf said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

Coming at quinn_sf’s question from a different direction. It is worth asking what the claim would look like if it were false. If nothing would look different, it is not a claim about the world and no amount of discussion will settle it.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. Say what you would expect to see if you were wrong, before you look. It is a small discipline and it changes what you notice.

A narrower follow-up, since the general answer is now clear:

How long did you give it before you decided it was working?

Moderator note: leaving this open. It is being argued well and the disagreement is the useful part. Carry on.