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Quote from BHE
Quote from dergon
Quote from TAP
This is the same Tom Jefferson and the same Cochrane study from 7 months ago. Most unbiased people have not been impressed with it. [link=https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/scicheck-what-the-cochrane-review-says-about-masks-for-covid-19-and-what-it-doesnt/]What the Cochrane Review Says About Masks For COVID-19 – and What It Doesnt – FactCheck.org[/link]
“tested the effectiveness of interventions encouraging people to wear masks, rather than testing the effectiveness of masks themselves”
Absolutely (“tested the effectiveness …”) and that’s an important and legitimate point. “Mask mandates” may do little or nothing to reduce case #’s, even if an individual wearing a high-quality mask during an exposure can make a big difference in that instance. If you say “both can’t be true” you aren’t thinking hard enough.
However, I strongly disagree with “most unbiased people have not been impressed with it” (the Cochrane review). It has drawn fire (and support), obviously, but IMO most of the vigorous criticisms have come from people who are quite biased themselves, and such criticisms generally didn’t actually address the substance of the review (this is separate from criticism of the public comments made by one of the authors, TJ).
[b]The factcheck.org link above is very good IMO, and gives some mild criticism of Cochrane but hardly dismisses it the way some have tried desperately to do. [/b]
The experts in the factcheck basically say 1 of 2 things:
(1) we don’t know if public masking policies work b/c we don’t have good enough data (which is what Cochrane [not TJ] said)
(2) or, we don’t have convincing data that they work, but I personally think they probably help a little. Which, scientifically, should be taken as “they may or may not work”how is that so different from what the Cochrane review said?
Not different at all. I believe this study is inconclusive. You appear to believe it inconclusive. Fact check agrees. The Cochrane Editor-in-Chief, in her attempt to clean up Jeffersons post publication remarks, thinks so as well ([link=https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses-review]Statement on ‘Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses’ review | Cochrane[/link]). I must not fully understand your position in that I fail to see how this study moves the needle. Jefferson was an anti-mask believer well before covid. That is generally not a big deal. Most researchers are objective enough that they are willing to change their even strong opinion based on their or other new research. Perhaps we are entering a post scientific method era. In the past there have been many scientific questions that had no current consensus. Through more and better designed studies, a consensus is gradually reached. This may still happen with masks. Im beginning to wonder this will ever be fully settled given the polarization of medicine and the evident extreme difficulty/near impossibility in designing good mask studies.
