Over the last few years I have shared many posts on both the ineffectiveness of masks against viruses, as well as the harmful. effects to health, immunity & emotional wellbeing. I know I promised not to share any posts when I linked to this December 2021 Brownstone Institute Article citing 170 studies on mask ineffectiveness, but with a recently published Cochrane Review in January 2023, I feel this now puts to bed this topic for good.
It saddens me deeply that children & adults have been harmed due to mask mandates— physically, emotionally & intellectually— and it may take decades to really discern the true impacts of these draconian orders on free human beings. May we learn from this time— and at the very least learn to respect the choices of others, rather than adopt herd like mentality and shame those that made personal choices for health & wellbeing.
What is Cochrane ?
Before I share the findings on the latest Cochrane Review on Masks, it maybe first worth noting what are ‘Cochrane Reviews’. A Cochrane Review is a systematic review of research in health care and health policy that is published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision making.
In summary, Cochrane Reviews have historically been seen as the Gold Standard for assessing the evidence of in scientific findings, thought it appears their no-strings attached funding model may have been compromised in recent years… which may explain the reason WHY Tom Jefferson’s Cochrane Review of masks was significantly delayed for publication.
Cochrane Report— Masks are Ineffective
Tom Jefferson MD, senior associate tutor at the University of Oxford, is the lead author of a January 2023 Cochrane review that has ‘gone viral’ on social media and re-ignited one of the most divisive debates during the pandemic – face masks.
The updated review titled “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of acute respiratory viruses” found that wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to influenza-like or covid-19-like illness transmission. Say no more! This comes off the back of three years of governments mandating the use of face masks in the community, schools and hospital settings. Just last month, the WHO upgraded its guidelines advising “anyone in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space” to wear a mask.
Maryanne Demasi PhD interviews the lead author Tom Jefferson MD on her substack. Here are some key points:
- Tom Jefferson’s original Mask review in early 2020 was ‘held back’ from being published by Cochrane for 7 months, as it was felt it needed ‘extra’ peer review.
- During those 7 months, other researchers at Cochrane produced some unacceptable pieces of work, using unacceptable studies, that gave the “right answer”
- What was the right answer? In November 2020 Cochrane published an editorial to accompany our review. The main message of that editorial was that you can’t sit on your hands, you’ve got to do something, you can’t wait for good evidence…. it’s a complete subversion of the ‘precautionary principle’ which states that you should do nothing unless you have reasonable evidence that benefits outweigh the harms.
- Why did Cochrane do this? Could it because of his funders, in particular the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation?
- And finally Tom Jeffersons updated January 2023 review includes the Danish Mask Study, and the results are still the same— wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to influenza-like or covid-19-like illness transmission.
Read Maryanne Demasi PhD full Substack Interview here:
https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-lead-author-of-new-cochrane
