{"id":1501048,"date":"2022-06-02T10:59:38","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T14:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1501048"},"modified":"2022-06-02T10:59:46","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T14:59:46","slug":"fact-checker-tries-to-debunk-study-proving-masks-didnt-work-in-europe-fails-miserably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-checker-tries-to-debunk-study-proving-masks-didnt-work-in-europe-fails-miserably\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact Checker Tries to Debunk Study Proving Masks Didn\u2019t Work in Europe, Fails Miserably"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-checker-tries-to-debunk-study-proving-masks-didnt-work-in-europe-fails-miserably%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1501048&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">A<\/span>n article from The National Pulse went viral last month that reported on a European study that concluded masks were not effective in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 when it was most needed, and even showed a positive correlation between mask usage and COVID deaths.<\/p>\n<p>The peer reviewed study \u201cCorrelation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe\u201d was published in Cureus Journal of Medical Science in April of this year, and was authored by Beny Spira, an Associate Professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thenationalpulse.com\/2022\/05\/16\/study-finds-correlation-between-mask-compliance-and-covid-deaths\">The National Pulse\u2019s Natalie Winters<\/a>, explained in her summary of the study that:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage,\u201d found a new study, whose data and analysis instead discovered a \u201cmoderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cData from 35 European countries on morbidity, mortality, and mask usage during a six-month period were analyzed and crossed,\u201d continued the study, which encompassed a total of 602 million people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe findings presented in this short communication suggest that countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage in the six-month period that encompassed the second European wave of COVID-19,\u201d Spira summarized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>The lack of negative correlations between mask usage and COVID-19 cases and deaths suggest that the widespread use of masks at a time when an effective intervention was most needed, i.e., during the strong 2020-2021 autumn-winter peak, was not able to reduce COVID-19 transmission<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The study also found\u00a0 the aforementioned positive correlation between mask wearing and deaths. \u201cMoreover, the moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe also suggests that the universal use of masks may have had harmful unintended consequences,\u201d though the positive relationship between mask usage and cases wasn\u2019t statistically significant.<\/p>\n<p>So in summary, the study\u2019s main takeaway found a lack of negative correlation between mask wearing and a reduction in COVID transmission, and so absent was a negative relationship that a \u201cmoderate\u201d positive one for COVID deaths was actually present.<\/p>\n<p>In responding to Winters\u2019 article on this explosive study, PolitiFact\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/factchecks\/2022\/may\/27\/facebook-posts\/no-evidence-masks-caused-covid-19-deaths\/\">Gabrielle Settles<\/a> decided to fact check the claim that \u201cThere\u2019s a \u201c\u2018positive correlation\u2019 between higher mask usage and COVID-19 deaths,\u201d which she rated false. Settle\u2019s frames the fact check as follows; \u201cthe study stopped short of saying the masks caused deaths, as the post suggests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t Winters suggesting this, it was the study itself, but what Settles really seems to be getting at here is that correlation is not causation. While this may sound like arguing semantics, Settles\u2019 fact check is evaluating the specific claim that there\u2019s a \u201cpositive correlation between higher mask usage and COVID-19 deaths\u201d (which the study found) \u2013 and now she\u2019s arguing something else entirely, whether or not there\u2019s a causal relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Settles then turned to criticizing the study\u2019s main conclusion, that masks were effectively useless, by quoting one epidemiologist who said that the study\u2019s logic was flawed because \u201cMasking protocols were put into place because of the high risk of the virus at the time,\u201d but no actually numbers were giving as to how this may change the study\u2019s results. And this logic itself is flawed. Sure it could be the case that higher masking was associated with more COVID cases because more masking followed a spike in COVID cases, but this doesn\u2019t explain why the results were similar everywhere else that didn\u2019t mask up during a spike.<\/p>\n<p>Settles then pointed to a pro-mask mandate CDC study from 2020 (as if they\u2019d conclude anything else) to argue that masks do work in the United States. No reason is given for why we\u2019re supposed to trust this study over the latest data.<\/p>\n<p>Settles lastly justifies her \u201cfalse\u201d ruling because \u201cPublic health officials recommend masking as one way to help reduce transmission.\u201d The logic here is circular \u2013 public health officials recommend masking so any studies saying masking is pointless are false because public health officials recommend masking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Palumbo is the author of\u00a0<i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"><a class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https:\/\/posthillpress.com\/book\/man-behind-the-curtain-inside-the-secret-network-of-george-soros\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/posthillpress.com\/book\/man-behind-the-curtain-inside-the-secret-network-of-george-soros\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros<\/a><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss The Dan Bongino Show<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article from The National Pulse went viral last month that reported on a European study that concluded masks were not effective in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 when it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1501048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}