I was one of the three people who wrote the protocol for Cochrane Review A122, ‘Physical Interventions to Interrupt or Reduce the Spread of Respiratory Viruses‘ in 2006, and I have worked on all five updates. I will try to summarise what is a very confusing situation.
There are two issues here:
- Cochrane editorial mission control throwing us under the bus because of ‘pressure’ (let’s call it gross editorial mismanagement). This happened twice: in 2020 (fourth update) and 2023 (fifth update).
- Cochrane editorial mission control’s infringement of four founding principles of what was then the Cochrane Collaboration (this also took place in 2020 and 2023) is still ongoing, as none of the offending pieces of work have been retracted.
These are linked but equally serious issues.
We have told the story in a series of Trust the Evidence posts dating back two years and will continue to do so as it is far from finished, and there’s lots more to come.
The latest post is ‘Follow the narrative, not the evidence‘, about Cochrane’s race to the bottom of the evidence quality pyramid during the wokery surrounding the Covid pandemic.
And Tuesday’s ‘After Throwing Scientists Under the Bus for a Media Smearing, Cochrane Backtracks on Mask Review Statement‘, reporting how editorial mismanagement made us targets for the lobbying mob.
To add to the saga the Editors posted an update on June 6th.
This latest update adds to the confusion, as the last Cochrane Editors’ statement is misleading and spun.
The term “engagement” belies the fact that the Editor-in-Chief refused to meet with all 12 co-authors, insisted on the involvement of a mediator interacting with a single author (nominated by all the authors), and has still not explained her conduct.
The text gives the impression that the text of the review, which was approved by the editorial mission control, has been explained by interacting with the many who commented (if they are real people). This introduces two false concepts. First, that science is democratic; it can be conducted by a show of hands. The ‘Ayes’ have it. Second, that there was something to correct in the text in the first place (though curiously only in the shop windows, abstract and plain-language summary).
The Cochrane editorial bumbling opened the door to the influence of activists and overnight experts, so it’s no wonder some of you are confused.
Dr. Tom Jefferson is an epidemiologist based in Rome and lead author of the latest update to the Cochrane review of physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. This article was first published on Trust The Evidence, which you can subscribe to here.
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