The Other Side of the Hill

How a systematic review of the evidence is fast becoming a political football

The story of the Cochrane review of Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses and its latest developments have taken an even more bizarre twist. 

While the Altmetric (a rough indication of interest) continues to rise daily with a global buy-in, there now appears to be a fierce debate around the New York Times editorial, which referenced it and stated mask mandates were “a bust”. It’s now a footie game between left and right wingers or some such – please excuse my ignorance of the correct terminology. Carl and I are even labelled plot theorists and “claim” to have been censored by Facebook. However, it’s no claim; it’s a fact.

My co-authors and I started with the first version of the review in 2006. The review was done according to Cochrane standards, and its results were mildly interesting, so we kept going and republished it in the BMJ twice. At the time, it was probably seen as harmless, and something bigger was happening in the influenza field – …