NO EVIDENCE masks work: Lead author of new Cochrane review speaks out

… it’s an update from our November 2020 review and the evidence really didn’t change from 2020 to 2023

… There’s still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic

… governments completely failed to do the right thing and demand better evidence

… At the beginning of the pandemic, there were some voices who said masks did not work

… then suddenly the narrative changed

… They were convinced by non-randomised studies, flawed observational studies

… In early 2020 … we had just updated our Cochrane review ready to publish

… but Cochrane held it up for 7 months

… Those 7 months were crucial … it was when policy about masks was being formed

… then they forced us to insert unnecessary text phrases

… like “this review doesn’t contain any covid-19 trials,” when it was obvious to anyone reading the study that the cut-off date was January 2020

… During those 7 months, other researchers at Cochrane produced some unacceptable pieces of work, using unacceptable studies, that gave the “right answer”

… The main message …  was that you can’t sit on your hands, you’ve got to do something, you can’t wait for good evidence

… it’s a complete subversion of the ‘precautionary principle’ which states that you “should do nothing unless you have reasonable evidence that benefits outweigh the harms”

… 7 months that just happened to coincide with the time when all the craziness began

… I don’t work with models, I don’t make predictions

… I’m a scientist. I work with data

… you had to wear a mask to walk into a restaurant, but you could take it off as soon as you sat down

… lso the 2- meter rule. Based on what? Nothing

… The problem with that is, unless you make the population completely psychotic, they will not comply

… Masking became a “visible” political gesture

… Washing hands and sanitation and vaccination are not overtly visible, but wearing a mask is

… how these respiratory viruses transmit, and that, I can tell you, we don’t know

… The idea that the covid virus is transmitted via aerosols has been repeated over and over as if its “truth” but the evidence is as thin as air

… we have overnight experts perpetuating a ‘fear-demic.’

… it would be unethical to do a study and randomise half of a group to masks and the other half to no masks….do you agree?

… No, because we don’t know what effect masks will have.  If we don’t know what impact they have, how can it be unethical?

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