Letters from America - 1

Please take US democratic institutions seriously

You may know that the US House of Representatives conducted an enquiry called “AFTER ACTION REVIEW OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward”.

The report of the Select Sub Committee was published on 4th December 2024 (compare that with Hallett Enquiry). The report is long (557) pages and very good - but we will go back to it in detail at a later date. For now, let’s focus on some of the disinformation provided by the attorneys for Dr Francis S Collins, former long-standing boss of NIH, on the topic of masks and the attacks and censorship on our Cochrane review on masks.

The two attorneys wrote to the Committee, and here is that letter.

Tom could not allow the selected quotes (see below) to mislead Congress. The record had to be clarified, as was done when the former CDC Director misled another Congressional Committee thanks to the bumbling Cochrane editors under pressure from influencers:

The CDC Director Misinformed Congress on Cochrane Review A122.

So Tom wrote this letter to a senior staffer on the Subcommittee

13 December 2024

XXXXX

XXXXX

Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus PandemicU.S.House of Representatives 

2335 Rayburn House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515

Re: Misleading statements made by lawyers acting on behalf of Dr. Francis S. Collins on our Cochrane review.

Dear Sir, I am writing to you as the first and longest-serving author of the Cochrane review “Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.” 

The review, first published in 2007 and updated four times, has been the subject of a number of misquotes and misleading statements. The review is also the subject of misleading statements in the letter dated 3 December 2024 by Catherine A. Brandon and John Nassikas, acting on behalf of Dr Collins.

On page 2 of the letter, Ms Brandon and Mr Nassikas state, “The Final Report also fly-specks studies to support its broad conclusion that face masks do not work at all to mitigate COVID-19 transmission. See, e.g., Final Report, p. 204. To support this conclusion, the Select Subcommittee’s Final Report relies heavily on a review by the Cochrane Collection, published in January 2023. Despite the authors cautioning that “[t]he 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,” that is precisely what the Final Report does. The Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library, Dr Karla Sores-Weiser, has provided clarifications about that study that corrects misinterpretations in the Final Report. Specifically, Dr Soares-Weiser noted that while “[m]any commentators have claimed that a recently-updated Cochrane Review shows that ‘masks don’t work’,” such a statement is “an inaccurate and misleading interpretation.”  Dr. Soares-Weiser went so far as to apologise for the report's wording, which was “open to misinterpretation.” The Final Report compounds this misinterpretation by ignoring the weight of evidence regarding masking. A systematic review of mask-related studies reveals that 1) more studies determined that masks and mask mandates reduced infection, and 2) wearing masks generally reduced COVID-19 transmission.

The statement is misleading as it ignores the fact that Dr Soares Weiser and the Cochrane Editors issued a second statement dated 6 June 2024, which ends with the sentence, “Following engagement with the authors, the decision has been made that changes to the plain language summary and abstract would not impact the scientific integrity of the content and so Cochrane is no longer seeking updates to the plain language summary and abstract of this version of the review.”

No change has ever been made to the text of the 2023 version of the review, nor has it ever needed to be edited, as the Cochrane editor overseeing the review, Professor Michael Brown of Michigan State University told me in an email: “I apologize for how this transpired since when I had spoke to the NYTs reporter a couple of weeks ago, I stood by the conclusions of the review.”

Dr Soares Weiser issued the statement cited in the letter under pressure from the New York Times influencer and lobbyist Zeynap Tufecki, who has no background in the study of respiratory viruses epidemiology. The New York Times ignored my letters of complaint and refused my right of reply about Dr Tufecki’s lobbying and personal attacks.

The effects of lobbying and misinformation surrounding the review’s findings also led Dr Rochelle Walenski to mislead Congress (House Committee on Appropriations) by claiming that the review had been “retracted.” Once we presented the facts to the Clerk, the hearing record was corrected.

Therefore, I consider the statement on the public record by lawyers acting on behalf of Dr Francis S. Collins regarding our Cochrane review is misleading and requires correction.

I hope this letter is helpful to you in clarifying the facts about our review for your Select Subcommittee.

Copy: 

Chairman and Ranking Member 

Reference:

Jefferson T, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, van Driel ML, Bawazeer GA, Jones MA, Hoffmann TC, Clark J, Beller EM, Glasziou PP, Conly JM. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2023, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD006207. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6.

Used to UKHSA, MHRA, and sundry government departments' escape and evasion techniques, Tom was expecting to be ignored or getting a late answer.

Within 45 (FORTY FIVE) minutes, Tom received the staffer’s response confirming that his letter would be “added to the record” and asking if the representation by the Subcommittee report was fair. FORTYFIVE MINUTES, GOT IT?

Tom fell off his old geezer wheelchair. When he had recovered, he wrote back.

16 December 2024

XXXXX

XXXXX

Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus PandemicU.S.House of Representatives 

2335 Rayburn House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515

Re: Misleading statements made by lawyers acting on behalf of Dr. Francis S. Collins on our Cochrane review.

Dear Sir, Thank you for your prompt reply and inviting me to comment. Your citation of our review's content conclusions is correct. However, you might want to consider the November 2020 version (its third update), which reached the same conclusions as its 2023 update. I am the primary author of the 2006 protocol and the five review versions.

On the topic of mask effectiveness and safety, decision-makers discarded the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine almost overnight, carrying out a “race to the bottom” of the evidence quality pyramid. As you noted in your report, they then adopted wavering stances, continuously flip-flopping. They used mathematical models and poor-quality observational studies, coupled with personal attacks, persecution of trialists, lobbying, and censorship, to inflict evidence-free interventions on the American, Canadian, Australian, and European populations. 

I have reviewed the evidence since 2006 and can state that at present none of the physical interventions that decision-makers flip-flopped to introduce have a solid evidence base except for hand washing, which leads to a small but significant decrease in symptomatic acute respiratory illness.

As you noted, the CDC relied on several very low-quality studies to justify decisions already made.

Their biggest indictment was the refusal to carry out large randomised trials to explore further the evidence of what may work, in what mix, and in which populations before, during, and after the pandemic.

In commending your work, I remain happy to discuss and clarify this and other issues arising from your report and leave you with the words of a founding father of your Country: ‘The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transaction of their rulers may be concealed from them.’

Yours respectfully,

References:

Jefferson T, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, van Driel ML, Bawazeer GA, Jones MA, Hoffmann TC, Clark J, Beller EM, Glasziou PP, Conly JM. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2023, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD006207. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6. 

Jefferson T, Del Mar CB, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al-Ansary LA, Bawazeer GA, van Driel ML, Jones MA, Thorning S, Beller EM, Clark J, Hoffmann TC, Glasziou PP, Conly JM. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020, Issue 11. Art. No.: CD006207. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub5. 

This post was written by two old geezers who were flabbergasted at the speed and focus of staffers in the US Congress. Hallett's disgraceful treatment of Carl

Wrapping up the Hallett Inquiry?

stands as a comparison of how far the UK Enquiry has sunk into the pit of bias.