Mask mandates and COVID-19: A Re-analysis of the Boston school mask study · HackerPapers discussions

Mask mandates and COVID-19: A Re-analysis of the Boston school mask study — mentioned by timr

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:28:39 GMT

Literally hundreds of papers. Basically any paper published about masks during the pandemic was bad, save for a few RCTs. But I'll give you one particularly egregious example that comes to mind. The "Boston school mask study" in NEJM [1] claimed that mask mandates led to an almost 30% reduction in school cases during the pandemic. Subsequent reanalysis of the work -- including going back to the original source data -- showed that not only is that not true, the researchers blatantly cherry-picked their data, and also chose analysis time windows to optimize their desired outcome. The original…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Mask mandates and COVID-19: A Re-analysis of the Boston school mask study — mentioned by timr

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:08:56 GMT

HCQ doesn't work for Covid, but this is a fundamentally political retraction that won't accomplish anything. If I had to line up Covid-related papers that should be retracted on the grounds that the science was shoddy this paper would certainly be on the list, but it would be on a list with other, absolutely horrible, irresponsible stuff related to (for example) masks [1], that the same people who railed against this paper continue to believe, almost as religion. In the Covid debates "both sides" have their shibboleths that are based on atrocious science, so let's not get too sanctimonious…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.