I've too often seen (and might have done it myself) seizing on a single study that appears to prove something. Case in point:
Study Comparing Surgical and N95 Masks Sparks Concern
Study Comparing Surgical and N95 Masks Sparks Concern
- the fit-testing protocol wasn't defined
- results may not apply to other countries because of differences in treatment effects.
- wide confidence intervals indicating a high degree of uncertainty,
- differences in self-reported adherence
- baseline SARS-CoV-2 antibody status
- between-country differences in vaccination coverage
- dominant circulating variants
- HCWs in Canada were allowed to make their own decisions about whether to don a mask or N95, regardless of which intervention they were assigned to.
- 81% of N95 users reported using them all the time.
- Most HCWs not infected in hospital
About a quarter of participants reported never caring for COVID patients yet were still included in the analysis
relied on self-reported household and community exposures, which he said are unreliable because many infections go unrecognized.
Study participants were required to get tested for infection only if they developed symptoms - They use a figure of '>50% efficacy' for excluding vaccines, but do not present the estimates of efficacy for Sinopharm and other vaccines, or any information on how they calculate this,
- A control group was also needed,