Thread by @charlesbrew

The Moment I Knew Health Authorities Were Lying

In August of 2020 this article appeared in the WSJ
wsj.com/articles/face-…

The top study mentioned in the article was this. This was the number one most cited study on mask effectiveness at the time. A co-author was the director of the CDC at the time.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

So what’s in the study? They tested symptomatic health care workers Mass General Brigham. And they found that the percentage of positive test results went up from 0% to 15% from March 1 to 25 before masks were mandated.

Then after masks were mandated for staff and patients, the percentage of positive tests dropped from 18% to 10% between April 11 and 30. This graphic pretty much says it all.

My immediate though upon reading this was to ask what was happening with test results in Massachusetts during the same time periods. Here it is, some early dates omitted from graph at beginning because values all zero. Data from Covid Tracking Project.

The percentage of positive test results for the state as a whole went from 0% about 15% in the first period, just like the hospital workers.

And it went down slightly during the second period, just like the hospital workers. From about 30% to 20%.

There is no evidence here that masks made any difference. None. The test population was getting essentially the same result as the statewide population.

This is so basic an error that I could not believe I was reading it. There is no way the authors of the study could be so clueless as to fail to realize it. It had to be intentional. The authors of the study were trying to create a particular result. It is complete garbage.

How does something like this even get published?

How does it get picked up as the primary evidence for masks “working” in the WSJ and widely in the media in general?

I am hardly the first person to point out what garbage this study is. It has been lampooned. But here it is, still, today, listed on the CDC’s mask evidence page – footnote 42.

cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

This is lying in service of a particular narrative. This is the opposite of science. It is a disgrace.

Since reading that article and study back in August I have looked with great skepticism at all official guidance regarding covid.

It is ridiculous that I or anyone should have to do this.

We SHOULD be able to trust the institutions that have the responsibility to guide us on these matters.

But we can’t. They have proven themselves to be completely untrustworthy.

So, it becomes the duty of everyone to dig into the facts personally and draw their own conclusions. It should not be that way. But it is.

El Gato's recent essay is right on point here.

boriquagato.substack.com/p/shame-evadin…