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b_b  ·  930 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are We Wearing the Wrong Masks?

Overinterpreting of a single study also led to the whole HCQ debacle. It's almost as if we've learned nothing about science in the last 18 months!

One of the things about this study that makes it hard to interpret, beyond the low total case numbers, is that they don't actually have data about whether for an individual masking did anything. They only talk about populations, and rightly so, because that's the study design. But within that relative risk reduction of 11% or whatever, what's the effect size among strict mask adherents? We don't know.

What can be said about this study is that when absolute case loads are low, and mask wearing is lax generally, then wearing a surgical mask is a little better than not wearing a surgical mask. Not sure any other conclusions can be drawn. I don't know what hand the authors had in overinterpretation of their study, but I don't think they can be totally held accountable for how the media portrays it. Science journalism is bad, because if it wasn't bad no one would read articles about science. They would be too boring.