Did Cochrane's Masks Study Get It Wrong?

“Forcing people to wear masks has been a failure of public health. The reason we are still having the mask debate is because authorities relied on trash studies to justify their use, and wanted to appear as if they were doing something. In a crisis, it is always more difficult to do nothing,” Gøtzsche said.

An analysis by Høeg et al, published in Am J Med found that "MMWR publications pertaining to masks drew positive conclusions about mask effectiveness >75% of the time despite only 30% testing masks and <15% having statistically significant results."

Oreskes castigates Tom Jefferson, lead author on the Cochrane study, for saying that wearing a face mask "Makes no difference - none of it" and that he made "The classic error of conflating absence of evidence with evidence of absence."

"There is not an absence of evidence. There is evidence from randomised trials, including those trying to prevent influenza transmission, and it shows that masks just don't work."

In March 2020, a WHO official said, "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly."

A new systematic review by Sandlund et al published in BMJ's Archives of Diseases in Childhood shows that public health officials were wrong to mandate masks for children due to an absence of high quality evidence.

The study outlines "An extensive body of research" suggesting the harms associated with children wearing masks, and adds "We fail to find any evidence of benefit from masking children, to either protect themselves or those around them, from covid-19.".

Gøtzsche agrees, "Forcing people to wear masks has been a failure of public health. The reason we are still having the mask debate is because authorities relied on trash studies to justify their use, and wanted to appear as if they were doing something. In a crisis, it is always more difficult to do nothing."

https://brownstone.org/articles/did-cochranes-masks-study-get-it-wrong/