Originally Posted by
AntiPeter
This reviewed 5 studies, primarily concerning surgical masks vs N95s as opposed to the overall effectiveness of masks, with less than 8000 people and it's filled with disclaimer statements like "The evidence is limited by imprecision and heterogeneity for these subjective outcomes" and "Harms were poorly measured and reported." That's nerd-code for "the boss wanted us to run some numbers, so we did, but the actual research is garbage, so don't take it too seriously."
The direct quote from the article:
N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masksWe pooled trials comparing N95/P2 respirators with medical/surgical masks (four in healthcare settings and one in a household setting). There is uncertainty over the effects of N95/P2 respirators when compared with medical/surgical masks on the outcomes of clinical respiratory illness (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.45 to 1.10; very low-certainty evidence; 3 trials; 7779 participants) and ILI (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.03; low-certainty evidence; 5 trials; 8407 participants). The evidence is limited by imprecision and heterogeneity for these subjective outcomes. The use of a N95/P2 respirator compared to a medical/surgical mask probably makes little or no difference for the objective and more precise outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza infection (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.34; moderate-certainty evidence; 5 trials; 8407 participants). Restricting the pooling to healthcare workers made no difference to the overall findings. Harms were poorly measured and reported, but discomfort wearing medical/surgical masks or N95/P2 respirators was mentioned in several studies. One ongoing study recruiting 576 people compares N95/P2 respirators with medical surgical masks for healthcare workers during COVID-19.
Also, here's an article about how condoms don't work against any diseases with quotes cherry picked from the CDC, NIH, and USAID to name a few, citing much of the same logic as anti-masking
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/r...doms-dont-work
If this convinces you to start raw-dogging any stranger whose on the pill, go ahead. Personally, I'm skeptical and I think the authors of this article have an ulterior motive. All of the agencies they've cited did in fact publish those stats, yet all of those agencies unanimously believe condoms are a good thing.
Point is, science can be cherry picked very easily. When 9 out of 10 dentists say you should brush your teeth, I'm not very inclined to side with the 1 dentist whose out in left field for some reason and I don't know enough about oral health to have a professional opinion that challenges the consensus. But that's my logic, if you don't believe the same as me, that's ok. I don't care and I won't try to change your mind. I will periodically post counter-arguments for the crowd though. Also, my mind can be changed with irrefutable data. I just haven't seen anything convincing enough, especially when weighed against the counter evidence.