News Round-Up
26 July 2024
Government Has Just Declared War on Free Speech
26 July 2024
by Toby Young
With their latest statement the Cochrane Editors continue to mislead and spin, says Dr Tom Jefferson. While they have left the famous mask study unchanged, they have failed to retract the statements that cast doubt on it.
In 2020, the Cochrane Collaboration delayed its review of face masks and NPIs for six months while pushing out on-message rapid reviews based on low quality evidence. It still won't admit it was wrong.
Cochrane has finally confirmed that its review on the (in)effectiveness of masks will not be changed, over a year after succumbing to pressure from a New York Times writer. But the damage has been done, says Carl Heneghan.
"Healthcare is much more corrupt than people think, and industry money goes everywhere, to politicians, medical journals, newspapers etc.," says Cochrane co-founder Professor Peter Gøtzsche.
When the Cochrane review of face masks found no evidence of efficacy, Cochrane grandees disowned it. But is evidence now back in fashion, ask Tom Jefferson and Carl Heneghan.
Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan write that their Cochrane review on masks found no evidence they stopped viruses – a politically inconvenient conclusion that had to be silenced, come what may.
Anthony Fauci was challenged on CNN (really) over the Cochrane review showing no evidence for face masks against Covid. Now, the review's lead author Tom Jefferson has said his comments defending masks "don't make sense".
"If we ignore high-quality evidence, we arrive at the conclusion we want." Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson say that the Royal Society lockdown report authors appear to fully understand the politics.
Do masks work? According to an article in STAT, "randomised controlled trials are the worst way to answer the question". That's just because they gave the wrong answer, says Dr Roger Watson.
Responding to a GB News interview with Dr Tom Jefferson, UKHSA claims that the evidence shows masks work. But that conflicts not only with the findings of the Cochrane Review but also with its own published evidence.
© Skeptics Ltd.