EXCLUSIVE: I interview lead author of Cochrane's #mask review, Tom Jefferson
He condemns the pandemic’s overnight experts, the multitude of scientifically baseless health policies & opens up about his disappointment in Cochrane maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-le… @VPrasadMDMPH @davidemccune
He condemns the pandemic’s overnight experts, the multitude of scientifically baseless health policies & opens up about his disappointment in Cochrane maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-le… @VPrasadMDMPH @davidemccune
This review comes off the back of 3yrs of governments mandating the use of face masks in the community, schools & hospital settings. Just last month, the WHO upgraded its guidelines advising “anyone in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space” to wear a mask.
Jefferson says "governments completely failed to do the right thing and demand better evidence. At the beginning of the pandemic, there were some voices who said masks did not work and then suddenly the narrative changed."
Jefferson says "governments had bad advisors from the very beginning... They were convinced by non-randomised studies, flawed observational studies. A lot of it had to do with appearing as if they were “doing something.”
Jefferson says in 2020, Cochrane held up their review for 7 months before it was finally published in Nov 2020. Those 7 months were crucial - it was when policy about masks was being formed.
Jefferson says "don't call me an 'expert'...
David Sackett, the founder of Evidence Based Medicine, once wrote a very famous article for The BMJ saying that ‘experts’ are part of the problem.
You just have to look at the so-called ‘experts’ that have been advising government."
David Sackett, the founder of Evidence Based Medicine, once wrote a very famous article for The BMJ saying that ‘experts’ are part of the problem.
You just have to look at the so-called ‘experts’ that have been advising government."
"All you needed was for Tedros [from WHO] to declare it’s a pandemic and they could have randomised half of the United Kingdom, or half of Italy, to masks and the other half to no masks. But they didn’t. Instead, they ran around like headless chickens,’" said Jefferson
Jefferson says "I like Swiss cheese to eat -- the model not so much …It’s predicated on us knowing exactly how these respiratory viruses transmit, and that, I can tell you, we don't know....
..There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference."
@goddeketal
..There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference."
@goddeketal
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