Follow the narrative, not the evidence.

Cochrane’s race to the bottom

TTE’s open letter to the Cochrane Board dated 16 February points out that a series of rapid reviews on the effects of sundry non-pharmaceutical interventions undermined or ignored the rationale for the Cochrane Collaboration.

An open letter to the Cochrane Board

Cochrane authors and editors did not follow the rules nor the spirit of those who came together long ago to create the Cochrane Collaboration and kept going, whatever the costs, within the rules.

TTE considered four founding principles were breached:

• Collaboration

• Avoidance of Duplication

• Use of best-quality Evidence

• Keeping reviews up to date

The rapid reviews that breached these principles included junk studies, such as models, and plugged the gap of the long-standing Cochrane review on the same topics (Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses (A122)). Review A122's publication was delayed by six months, which saw the gap filled with reviews that included poor-quality evidence: if models can be called evidence.

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