It’s become a living parody. Every time there is a study or World Health Organization guidance that raises concerns or counters the narrative of COVID fascism, it is retracted and changed the minute it is cited by panic skeptics. We all joked on the day that a German study raising concerns about CO2 levels in children wearing masks was published in JAMA that the editors must have had the day off. Well, to our surprise, it did take 16 days for them to retract it, which means they really had trouble finding anything wrong with it.
The results of the German study could not be allowed to stand because rather than just attack the efficacy of masks, it raised questions about serious side effects. In a randomized controlled trial of 45 children wearing masks, the researchers found that CO2 levels increased to levels deemed unacceptable by the German Federal Environmental Office by a factor of 6 after just three minutes.
On July 16, the two editors of JAMA issued a retraction with a one-paragraph explanation. “Following publication, numerous scientific issues were raised regarding the study methodology, including concerns about the applicability of the device used for assessment of carbon dioxide levels in this study setting, and whether the measurements obtained accurately represented carbon dioxide content in inhaled air, as well as issues related to the validity of the study conclusions,” wrote editors Dimitri Christakis and Phil B. Fontanarosa.
They never divulge who raised those issues or extrapolated on the details of their concerns. They claim that in their response to the criticism, “the authors did not provide sufficiently convincing evidence to resolve these issues, as determined by editorial evaluation and additional scientific review.
Are we really to believe such vague concerns in an era when any criticism of masks and spike protein vaccines being censored? Notice they never offer any specific concerns about the study’s conclusion, which is pretty intuitive. As I cited in my write-up of this study three weeks ago, numerous other studies of health care workers wearing masks long before COVID-19 showed similar results. Yet, one can always find ways to quibble with methodology in a way that doesn’t refute the results.
But on whom should the burden of proof be? It’s not like anyone else is conducting a study using the “proper” methodology. Why is it that the other side can force our children into doing novel and dangerous things, such as experimental shots and covering their breathing orifices without their “experts” having to prove conclusively that these practices are safe? Hasn’t that always been the standard in science and medicine?
As Harald Walach, the lead author of the German study, said in response to the retraction, “The measurements, we contend, are valid and were conducted by individuals with high content expertise. … If someone doubts our results, the way to go is not to claim they are wrong without proof, but to produce better and different results.”
Fair use excerpt. Read the rest here.
