Every now and again, @NYMag's @intelligencer decides to publish COVID misinformation.
The latest example comes courtesy of @davidzweig and centers around masking for kids.
It makes the same tired arguments that I've been hearing for months now. Let's take a look...
Zweig starts by misrepresenting a single study from Georgia that looked at 90K students/169 schools (cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/7…).
He insinuates that the study found no protection with masking for students.
In truth, student masking reduced COVID incidence by 21%...
The trend did not reach statistical significance, and the authors give a logical reason why.
But the trend was still there.
Also, the lack of statistical significance could have been due to the small sample size (only ~80 schools in the groups with/without masking)
Next, the Talented Mr. Zweig claims the CDC's science brief on COVID in K-12 schools (cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…) lacks studies of student masking in isolation.
I guess he missed this second Georgia study that linked student masklessness to COVID clusters? cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/7…
A similar episode/investigation in Israel revealed an uptick in cases at a school ***immediately after*** masking was rolled back. eurosurveillance.org/content/10.280…
Zweig opts to gloss over/downplay this inconvenient finding in a sidebar. 👀🧐 🤔
Finally, Zweig makes the most tired of tired arguments: "COVID, of course, is also a disease that tends to have much milder effects on children."
First, COVID can be both less threatening in kids AND STILL CAUSE A LOT OF SERIOUS DISEASE IN KIDS.
Moreover, Zweig makes the exhausting comparison of pediatric flu vs. pediatric COVID. Just so tired.
I guess he missed this CDC study from June showing COVID hospitalizations among teens were greater than hospitalizations linked to influenza over 3 recent flu seasons...
Not to mention, the CDC study even analyzed the flu season (2018-2019) that Zweig highlights in his bogus comparison!!!! 🤯🤬🤯🤬🤯🤬🤯🤬🤯🤬🤯🤬
The difference is clear as the daylight that his tired argument can't seem to see.
cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/7…
P.S. For the people chirping at me about statistics:
A trend can be clinically significant but not statistically significant for the reasons I mention
Zweig undoubtedly understands this, and if he doesn't, that's less than great
healthnewsreview.org/toolkit/tips-f…
s4be.cochrane.org/blog/2017/03/2…
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