Re:Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials
by wk_end on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @12:35PM
(#36775264)
I disagree with your assessment of Vox's article. It offers two big criticisms of the conclusions being drawn from the Cochrane review, neither of which you mentioned, namely:
1. Only two of the studies included are actually about COVID and masks; it's misleading to say, "oh, this big meta-review of all the data shows that they masks didn't do anything against COVID in the pandemic" when at best exactly one study out of the 78 included says that.
2. Even those two studies weren't about mask use but about mask policy. They're interesting from a public health perspective but don't tell us anything about the actual mechanics of whether masks work or not, which seems to be how (some) people are taking it.
It also doesn't speak well to the Cochrane review if they're including a study that you yourself argue is junk!
1. Only two of the studies included are actually about COVID and masks; it's misleading to say, "oh, this big meta-review of all the data shows that they masks didn't do anything against COVID in the pandemic" when at best exactly one study out of the 78 included says that.
2. Even those two studies weren't about mask use but about mask policy. They're interesting from a public health perspective but don't tell us anything about the actual mechanics of whether masks work or not, which seems to be how (some) people are taking it.
It also doesn't speak well to the Cochrane review if they're including a study that you yourself argue is junk!