Look up the Cochrane review on masks.
Its conclusion was not that masks can never work. It found that, in randomized studies, encouraging people to wear masks produced little or no clearly detectable reduction in COVID or other respiratory infections.
The researchers compared medical masks, N95 respirators and no mask groups. When they looked at who actually became infected, the overall benefit was minimal and statistically uncertain.
That is quite different from the confident claim that widespread masking and mask mandates had been proven to substantially reduce transmission.
The debate over masks certainly came close to creating the very "panic and hysteria" Doc talked about. People were shamed, excluded and treated as dangerous for questioning claims that were far less certain than officials admitted.
In hindsight, much of it looks like theater and virtue signaling masquerading as settled science.
#180 | Posted by BillJohnson
Did you read the statement Cochrane released about the frequent misinterpretation of their review by people like you?
www.cochrane.org
Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library, has responded on behalf of Cochrane:
Many commentators have claimed that a recently-updated Cochrane Review shows that 'masks don't work', which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation.
Feel free to read the rest so as to avoid spewing misinformation in the future.
Sorry - posted earlier at drudge.com