Read on Twitter
1/ I decide to read the below article in the WaPo about the CDC's new guidance. WaPo asserts in the article that there is "strong evidence on the effectiveness of masks" so I decide to click-through that statement to see the support... https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/19/cdc-mask-plane-train-bus/
2/ First clickthrough takes me to this 9/30 article by @_allysonchiu that claims there is "mounting scientific evidence" that masks work, which is another clickthrough... https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/09/30/mask-guidelines-covid-faq/?arc404=true
3/ Still looking for hard evidence, I clickthrough to article dated June 13 in WaPo that reports on "several new studies" that "support wearing masks..." Finally, some details! https://apple.news/Aajf7MEm7TOCY3lhvgoATBg
4/ WaPo cites the "broadest" study was funded by WHO...which appeared in the Lancet...WaPo writes:
"But that conclusion came with an important caveat: 'We have low certainty in that,' Schünemann said, meaning the authors cannot be strongly confident in the result." Wait...what?
"But that conclusion came with an important caveat: 'We have low certainty in that,' Schünemann said, meaning the authors cannot be strongly confident in the result." Wait...what?
5/ So, I'm on my third article trying to find the source for the original WaPo comment about compelling mask evidence, and the broadest study in the cited article by WaPo...explicitly says the authors are not confident in the result?? What the hell? So I dig further...
6/ And I pull up the ACTUAL study from Lanncet that is the foundation for the strong assertions WaPo is TODAY making in their articles...here it is... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7263814/
7/ And then I do something that 0% of journalists and perhaps 0.1% of Americans do: I read the actual study..."We did a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the optimum distance for avoiding person-to-person virus transmission and to assess the use of face masks"...
8/ First notable finding? "Studies were all observational in nature; no randomised trials were identified of any interventions that directly addressed the included study populations." English: no gold-standard studies exist. At all.
9/ Next notable finding? N95 masks do reduce transmission
