The study was opaque in some areas in which I was interested. For example, what was the content and handling of a 4-item anxiety questionnaire?

The supplementary material showed that the “fear of terror” term involved three factors: feeling unsafe; fear of crowds; and anxiety about future harm. I’d like to understand the bases of why the researchers and the reviewer felt it was appropriate that: “The scores on these items were averaged to yield a continuous FOT [fear-of-terror] score..”

The researchers probably have sufficient measurements of the subjects’ current conditions. In my view, they need to adopt a framework to make sense of the present with information from each individual’s history back to the earliest parts of life. Until then, the researchers are assessing the mountain climber’s condition without checking the contents of their backpack.