Editor:
I was very disappointed to see the CR publish the letter from PJ Reece of Gibsons [March 17] regarding a recent review of studies on masking. It shows just how difficult it is to get rid of false information once it is swirling around on social media.
Both the authors and the publisher have tried to correct the misinformation, but obviously to no avail. From the authors in the original abstract: “The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.”
From the publisher: “The Cochrane Review ‘Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses’ was published in January 2023 and has been widely misinterpreted.” Or from the publisher’s full statement: “Many commentators have claimed that a recently-updated Cochrane Review shows that ‘masks don’t work’, which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation.”
I know we live in a time when people like to “do their own research.” What this letter from PJ Reece reminds us, is that most of us do not have the skills, training or qualifications to do that research or to understand the research that others do. I personally hope we will emerge from this era of faux populism and, once again, trust the brain surgeons to do brain surgery and the rocket scientists to launch the rockets.
It would be useful to remain modest in our claims - as the old saying (mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain) suggests: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Bruce Milne, Davis Bay
