The politicisation of masks
From Lobbyists to suppressors and onto flip-floppers
Way back in 2006, when Tom and colleagues wrote the protocol for the Cochrane review, Physical Interventions to Interrupt or Reduce the Spread of Respiratory Viruses ( A122 for short), little did he realise the review would become the centre of a political battle, and he would be personally targeted, too.
The first version of A122 was published in late 2007. Since then, there have been four updates, the most recent in November 2020 and January 2023. The BMJ also published two of the updates (see here and here)
The first three versions included randomised and non-randomised comparative studies on various interventions such as personal hygiene, distancing and barriers, gloves, masks, goggles, antiseptics, gargling, etc.
No one took a great deal of notice of the review and its findings. The poor quality of the non-randomised evidence meant it was excluded from 2020 as the number of randomised studies increased.
We have chronicled attempts at delaying the 2020 publication;
It was also when …
