3 ms·
Working down from the conclusion to find the necessary assumptions is the standard approach to COVID-related questions.
by admissionsguy 5y ago
Working down from the conclusion to find the necessary assumptions is the standard approach to COVID-related questions.
- nerdponx 5y agoThis is a valid way to do science. "What assumptions are required to make this conclusion valid?" If the assumptions turn out to be outlandish, then maybe we can't take the conclusion to be true.
- admissionsguy 5y agoIn principle, sure, but here, it's just grotesque. They admit RCTs show masks don't matter, so they put together a few differential equations (which most certainly could be chosen differently to support something else entirely) such that in some domains (virus-limited) masks help a lot, in some (virus-rich) not. Then they implicitly assume that RCTs didn't show anything because they were done in virus-rich environments and somehow conclude from this dubious claim that "Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission". Am I not reading it correctly?