SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Years after COVID started raging across the globe COVID mask studies still have no complete credible conclusions [news.com.au] with some studies being torn to shreds in review.

A major Covid study which came to the stunning conclusion that face masks were all but useless has been torn to shreds in a scathing take-down.

A recent Cochrane Review – considered the gold standard of evidence-based medicine – assessed 78 high-quality scientific studies, and found “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference” when comparing masking with non-masking to prevent Covid-19.

What’s more, the review found, even for health care workers providing routine care, “there were no clear differences” between medical or surgical masks versus N95s.

Tomas Pueyo weighed in on the debate claiming what he found was “so ridiculous it was funny”. Mr Pueyo analyzed the reviews highlighting the issues with the methods and variables concluding that the outcome should have been ‘We don’t know if masks work’ not 'masks don't work' for which are two very different statements. Some studies had very small sample sizes, and others were unable to provide conclusive evidence. Mr Pueyo’s criticisms of the review echo those of Australian epidemiologist and biosecurity expert Professor Raina MacIntyre.

I wonder if they know that 76.13% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Original Submission