The Cochrane Review’s editor-in-chief on March 10 issued an unusual statement claiming that a recent paper published by the review does not show masks don’t work.
That interpretation of the paper is “inaccurate and misleading,” Karla Soares-Weiser, the editor-in-chief, said in a statement.
The January review found that, based on the current evidence, masks were not effective in reducing the spread of respiratory viruses.
Pooled results from the randomized, controlled trials analyzed for the review “did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks,” the authors said, though several factors, including a high risk of bias in the trials, “hampers drawing firm conclusions,” they added….