Rant: That viral 'CDC says masks don't work' article from last week is missing three key studies

I read that piece claiming masks are useless and compared it to the actual CDC data. It cited one 2020 Danish study but left out the 2023 meta-analysis of 12 trials showing masks cut transmission by 53% in healthcare settings. Has anyone else noticed how they cherry-pick the smallest sample sizes?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren_mitchell22h ago

The Danish study you're talking about actually had 6,000 participants which is way bigger than the 2023 meta-analysis that only looked at 1,200 people total across all 12 trials. That meta-analysis also had a huge bias problem since most of those studies were done during peak panic when everyone was already wearing masks so the control groups were contaminated. The CDC themselves admitted in their 2022 update that community mask studies show inconsistent results and the 53% number only applies to N95s in hospital settings not cloth masks in grocery stores. If you actually read the Danish study's full text they controlled for hand washing and social distancing which most of the pro-mask studies conveniently ignore.

cole_murphy22h ago

The "peak panic" part got me because I was one of those people wearing a mask on a solo hike in 2020 like it would protect me from rogue tree pollen. I actually read the Danish study while eating cereal and spilled milk on my laptop, so maybe I missed the hand washing control part. But yeah, that 53% number gets thrown around like it applies to my old t-shirt mask I used to tie on with a rubber band. I guess I should've known better but hey, at least my cereal tasted like shame and statistics.