Update on Cochrane Review of Masks
It's devastating for the editor
During the pandemic, my colleagues and I performed a systematic review of community masking. We found simply no good evidence to support masking or mask mandates.
Afterwards Cochrane published a similar (tbh even deeper) analysis and concluded that there was simply no good evidence that community masking slows the spread of respiratory viruses.
The standards used for our analysis are the same whether the intervention is a pill or a policy intervention: what do the best randomized studies show?
Notably the science community did run 3 additional masking RCTs during the pandemic. GuineaBissau is negative/ low utility. Denmark is negative. And Bangladesh was presented as successful, but reanalysis shows it was not a properly conducted randomized trial and thus… biased.
Accepting the fact that community (key word) masking probably does nothing is difficult for many. They don't understand how poor compliance can thwart bio plausibility. They don't understand how prolonged exposure time can thwart a marginal change in particle exposure. Masking is tied to political party and identity.
The Editor in Chief of Cochrane was unhappy with the popular interpretations of the analysis and issued a rare statement saying they would rethink the wording to make it clear that masks *might* work bc the confidence interval was broad.
I was curious at this announcement, so my research team looked at all Cochrane reviews on topics with negative overall conclusions and wide confidence intervals. We found that they were always interpreted as negative except for this one case. As such, the EIC was acting inappropriately.
Now after a lengthy discussion among the staff, Cochrane has concluded that no changes will be made. The EIC lost.
What's the take away? There never was any evidence to support community masking and certainly not mask mandate and certainly not in 2 year olds. Leaders in the US failed to run even a single community RCT. Instead belief was faith based. Although many smart people still love masking, history will view that the mask policies of covid were unscientific and dishonest. They should not be repeated.
the masks had several purposes, none of them having anything to do with stopping or slowing the virus. 1) be a visual reminder that the world is a dangerous germ ridden place and we must always be afraid 2) weaken your relationships and community 3) stop you from seeing smiles 4) beta testing to see how many absurd things people would accept without rebellion.
i did find one good purpose for them: during the winter months, breathing through a mask warms the air. the same thing, however, can be achieved by wearing a scarf
during the height of pandemic insanity, every shut down costume shop and every laid off wardrobe person spent their suddenly freed up time "doing their bit" making masks with all their scrap fabric. you couldn't find narrow elastic in a fabric store. friends were calling me to see if i had any to spare. i declined to contribute.
i spent my time making a bed ruffle for my guest room; i refused to be co-opted by a cult movement.
At least they didn't let the EIC flush their reputation down the toilet. I heard a comedian say (can't remember who) "the mask is the MAGA hat of the left" And I had to chuckle even though it was depressing at its core. Maybe the responsible adults are taking over the Clown $hit Show world. Maybe the dumpster fire will be put out. Maybe there is hope. Maybe the bird flu vaccine won't be mandated. Who am I kidding...ain't nobody stopping the ProfitDemic. But I will be DAMNED if I take another jab in my life. Never Forgive, Never Forget.