Posted on 10/07/2023 1:02:41 PM PDT by Signalman
Public health agencies that spent the past three-and-a-half years promoting their preferred COVID-19 interventions as "The Science," above the realm of policy tradeoffs, are finally facing sustained skepticism from top American research journals as well as the public.
The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is widely cited but not externally peer-reviewed, serially exaggerated the evidence for mask-wearing among 77 such outside studies it published, according to an independent review by epidemiologists at the University of California San Francisco, the system's health sciences campus.
None of the 77 was randomized, the strongest form of evidence, and just one study each "used causal language appropriately" ("particle filtration on mannequins") or "cited conflicting evidence" (mostly about influenza), they wrote. "The level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data."
Without naming her, the authors scolded former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky for citing a low-response phone survey with non-significant results as evidence that masks reduce infection by "more than 80%."
Hoeg marveled on X, formerly Twitter, that the "5% of studies that reported higher cases rates in the masked group than the comparator group all concluded masks were effective!"
Forcing people to wear a mask in public has a real tradeoff, according to a study of pandemic-related "decreased mobility" and mental health in the Journal of the American Medical Association publication JAMA Network Open.
Psychiatrists at Rutgers, Harvard Medical School, the University of Pennsylvania and others found a "statistically significant, but very modest" association between such mandates and "depressive symptom severity" in recurring "non-probability" internet surveys from May 2020 to April 2022. The association was greater for "policies cancelling public events."
"The persistence of these outcomes in models adjusted for county-level COVID-19 acuity, as well as month of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests they are not merely proxies for local severity of the pandemic," the 11 authors wrote. Among nearly 200,000 participants, the races were roughly proportional to those in the U.S. but two-thirds were women.
"The pandemic measures were tailor made to create isolation and dread at a time people needed comfort and connection," Stanford Medical School epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya wrote of the study on X. "And these measures predictably failed to protect vulnerable people from covid."
The independent review of MMWR mask research found nothing four decades before 2019. The vast majority of the 77 studies were published in 2020 and 2021, 70 of which had at least one CDC coauthor. All but two looked at the U.S. alone, reflecting the outlier status of the country on COVID policy.
The plurality of studies (22) were "observational without a control or comparator group," which Walensky called better than randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Community settings (35) were most common, followed by K-12 (13), though only eight studies didn't include adults. Forty of 41 studies claiming masks were effective used causal language "inappropriately," when "at most [they] found a correlation."
The CDC didn't respond to Just the News queries for its response to the two papers.
Mask mandates aren’t about public health, they’re about power and control and gaining the obedience of the population.
Two school districts in North Dakota had a different policy on masking. One did mask and the other did not. The schools had similar demographics. The rate of COVID infections in both districts were statistically equal. The district that required masking abandoned the policy. That district did not have an increase in COVID infections. This was not a double blind study. In effect it was a study with a control group.
Link to article https://www.americanexperiment.org/north-dakota-study-masks-in-schools-hardly-impacted-covid-spread/ Masks do not work for COVID! The CDC knew masks were virtually worthless but foisted them on us for political reasons. It is all about control.
https://www.americanexperiment.org/north-dakota-study-masks-in-schools-hardly-impacted-covid-spread/
“You’ll own nothing - except a mask - and like it.”
ping
I saw a masked driver in the Wally parking lot today.
Did the mask make her confused as to what to do?
Or was she first confused and the mask is a result of being confused>
Sometimes cause and effect is hard to know.
I was in a conference of 1,000+ GA government health bureaucrats Tuesday. Only 1 mask visible.
We had one of these silly HR exercises, part of which was to stand uncomfortably close, facing another person. Tuesday night I and many others had a high fever. It passed and we all went back to WFH on Wednesday. We acquired natural immunity to some unknown minor thing going around apparently.
We need to publicize these events of natural activity. They happen all the time. But only the unnatural are mentioned.
Because they are meant to be a nose ring. An oppression device. A physical in the mirror reminder who is boss.
“Mask mandates aren’t about public health, they’re about power and control and gaining the obedience of the population.”
Pure and simple fact.
Than you for posting this!
At least one respected journal in the USA is willing to publicly call out the CDC for it’s flagrant lies about masks the past 3 + years.
Am J Med. 2023;Published:Sept 28, 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.08.026
Objective: To describe and evaluate the nature and methodology of reports and appropriateness of conclusions in MMWR pertaining to masks.
Background: Because Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) has substantial influence on United States health policy, it is critical to understand the scientific process within the journal. Mask policies have been highly influenced by data published in the MMWR.
Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study of MMWR publications pertaining to masks from 1978 to 2023. Outcomes included study design, whether the study was able to assess mask effectiveness, if results were statistically significant, if masks were concluded to be effective, if randomized evidence or conflicting data were mentioned or cited, and appropriateness of causal statements.
Results: 77 studies, all published after 2019, met our inclusion criteria. The most common study design was observational without comparator group 22/77 (28.6%). 0/77 were randomized. 23/77 (29.9%) assessed mask effectiveness. 11/77 (14.3%) were statistically significant, but 58/77 (75.3%) stated masks were effective. Of these, 41/58 (70.7%) used causal language. One mannequin study used causal language appropriately (1.3%). None cited randomized data. 1/77 (1.3%) cited conflicting evidence.
Conclusions and Relevance: MMWR publications pertaining to masks drew positive conclusions about mask effectiveness >75% of the time despite only 30% testing masks and <15% having statistically significant results. No studies were randomized, yet over half drew causal conclusions. The level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data. Our findings raise concern about the reliability of the journal for informing health policy.
“... mask research, mask mandates worsen depression”
No kidding. I wavered between depression and PISSED OFF!
Every governor, D or R that imposed a mask mandate should be on trial.
All these psychological problems might be addressed by those who must wear masks as a medical practice. How they endure such a requirement may give answers. We don't expect such mask requirements will cause our medical people to go off the deep end and start hurting their patients. Do we? How do they keep from losing it and what can we learn from them?
EFF the CDC. Best I can do today. With our stupid administration potentially funding the attack on Israel, if the CDC burned to the ground, would we be worse off?
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