Dear Sir/Madam
You recently published the article "Impact of community masking on COVID-19: A cluster-randomized trial in Bangladesh". Science, 375(6577), eabi9069. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi9069 by Abaluck et al which contained the summary statement:
"A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during COVID-19 shows that the intervention tripled mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health."
As explained in the attached report, this statement grossly exaggerates the actual findings of the study and - unsurprisingly - has been widely used by the media to argue that the study provides the most convincing evidence yet of the effectiveness of masks in preventing covid-19 transmission and infection. More worryingly, the article has been cited explicitly to justify continuing or reintroducing aspects of mask mandates in the USA, UK and elsewhere. Because the paper provides no evidence that mask wearing reduces covid transmission or infections, it needs to be corrected or withdrawn.
Yours sincerely
Professor Norman Fenton
Reader Comments
It is interesting to see who masks and who doesn't. Most of the locals at this point have unmasked, interestingly.
Almost all of the tourists that we see, however, still mask up religiously and there are noticeable glances and looks received from those people.
It is a bit of a local ongoing joke.
30% devout, totally hypnotized Covidians
40% The vast average masses who are flippable
30% Those who never believed.
The 40% right now is in the process of figuring out they were lied to for 2 years. Now, from what I've seen locally those people are still easily flipped back into madness. There's still this very strange dissonance that hangs in the air as the regime messaging is muddled.
Extremely strange times.