Expert slams ‘gold standard’ Cochrane Review mask verdict

Many claimed a “gold standard” review of masks during the pandemic had put an end to the debate. But one expert isn’t buying it.

Did government’s make the right decision on masks? Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

An Australian medical expert has slammed the recently updated Cochrane Review —considered the gold standard of evidence-based medicine — on the effectiveness of masks during the pandemic.

The review, which assessed 78 scientific studies, found “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference” when comparing masking with non-masking to prevent Covid-19.

What’s more, the review found, even for health care workers providing routine care, “there were no clear differences” between medical or surgical masks versus N95s.

Professor Raina MacIntyre has taken issue with the Cochraine Review - which found that “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference” in preventing Covid-19.

Lead author Tom Jefferson, senior associate tutor at the University of Oxford, said in a recent interview “there is still no evidence that masks are effective during the pandemic”.

Of course, not everyone is accepting the Cochrane findings.

Critics argue that a different conclusion might have been reached if more and better studies had been available.

Epidemiologist and biosecurity expert Professor Raina MacIntyre has taken issue with the study, saying there is “overwhelming evidence they work”.

“When we are faced with a rapidly mutating virus and partially effective vaccines wane, protection needs to be multi-layered,” she told news.com.au.

Prof MacIntyre said Conchrane reviews can be vulnerable to the same cherry picking and biases of any research.

“The Conchrane review combined studies that were dissimilar — they were in different settings (healthcare and community) and measuring different outcomes (continuous use ofN95 vs intermittent),” she said.

“This is like comparing apples with oranges. If wearing N95 intermittently doesn’t protect but wearing one continously does, then combining studies that use it in these different ways may suggest N95s don’t work.”

Burnet Institute Director and CEO Professor Brendan Crabb echoes Prof MacIntyre’s views, arguing it would be a “big mistake, a risk to public health” to perpetuate a view that face masks are of little benefit in the battle against Covid-19.

“This is more a debate around the nature of trial design to assess the effectiveness real-world uses of tools that physic and other approaches show have clear benefits for the user and community”.

Prof Crabb compares it to assessing the benefits of helmets on bicycles, or seat-belts in cars.

“A randomised controlled trial is not the way to determine real-world effectiveness of these clearly spectacularly successful tools,” he said.

Millions of Australian were warned to wear face masks in certain settings during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Masks were a staple during the pandemic in Australia with state government and territories mandating them in certain settings.

As recently as Christmas last year, millions of Australian were warned to wear face masks in certain settings to quash a fresh spike in Covid cases.
The Australia Medical Association unsuccessfully pushed for state governments to return to mask mandates over the busy holiday season.
Police were forced to enforce mask rules, which often led to confrontations with members of the public.

In Victoria, where Premier Daniel Andrews and his chief health officer Brett Sutton oversaw some of the harshest pandemic rules in the world, masks became a divisive issue.

Police were forced to enforce mask rules, which often let to confrontations with members of the public.

In August last year, the Andrews government made available millions of N95 masks.

“Providing masks free of charge to those who need them most will help them protect themselves, their loved ones, and Victoria’s hardworking healthcare workers,” the Premier said.