Documents that were recently obtained from the National Institutes of Health suggest that public health officials used erroneous information and misrepresented medical research to support their policy goal that masks stop the spread of severe COVID-19 and viruses, even though experts had given them evidence to the contrary.
In a letter (pdf) sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in November 2021, top epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and seven colleagues told the agency that it was promoting bad data and leaving out data that didn’t fit with their story.
The letter told the agency that misrepresenting data on trusted websites like the CDC and the COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network, which was made by the CDC and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), would “damage the credibility of science,” put public trust at risk by “misrepresenting the evidence,” and give the public “false expectations” that masking would protect them from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Mr. Osterhom wrote, “We think the information and suggestions given may actually increase a person’s chance of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 and having a serious or even life-threatening infection.”
The authors asked the IDSA to take the idea that masks prevent serious diseases off of its website and asked the CDC to rethink its comments about the “efficacy of masks and face coverings for preventing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.”
Osterholm also saw a pattern of picking and choosing data to support the story that masks prevent severe COVID-19 disease and its spread. He said that the scientific proof on the websites of the CDC and IDSA doesn’t support these claims.
Mr. Osterholm wrote that the “Masks and Face Coverings for the Public” page of the IDSA seems to “focus on the strengths of studies that support its conclusions while ignoring their weaknesses in study design.” “Studies that don’t back up its point of view are also ignored.”
In 2020, “accurate, up-to-date information about COVID-19” was shared through the COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network. The IDSA’s website says that its editorial team is made up of infectious disease and public health experts who put together clinical advice, find areas of emerging scientific consensus and areas where there is still uncertainty, and deal with “misconceptions and disinformation.”
Even though the IDSA is partly funded by the CDC, it works with a number of medical professional organizations that publish medical journals and make recommendations based on agency guidance. These organizations include the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the Society.
The letter was sent to CDC officials, the associate medical and associate digital editors of the COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network, and IDSA board members, including Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who was the head of the CDC during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Experts ask the CDC and IDSA to fix the website’s “serious errors.”
In his letter to the CDC, Mr. Osterholm asked the CDC and IDSA to fix the “serious errors” about the effectiveness of masks that were posted on its website as soon as possible. He also strongly asked the IDSA to take off its website and a podcast where “responsible claims” were made that masks prevent severe COVID-19.
Also, Mr. Osterholm suggested that the IDSA rethink its statements about the effectiveness of masks and other coverings in stopping the spread of SARS-CoV-2. He pointed out that the IDSA’s website gives the false impression that proof of mask effectiveness has grown stronger as the pandemic has gone on.
“We don’t agree with what the website says, that the evidence for their effectiveness has grown stronger as the pandemic has gone on,” Mr. Osterholm said. “In fact, contrary to what this website says, the November 2020 Cochrane Review says: ‘Compared to not wearing a mask, wearing a mask may make little or no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness (9 studies; 3,507 people); and probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3,005 people).'”
Osterholm said that he and his colleagues are not “anti-mask,” but they do want to see a more thorough scientific review of the data that shows how masks may help stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2. They offered to help the IDSA update the science study they do every few years. Instead, the IDSA and CDC changed their website to encourage masking, saying, “Masking is an important public health tool for stopping the spread of COVID-19, and it’s important to remember that any mask is better than no mask.”
The Functional Government Initiative (FGI), a group whose goal is to “make the American public more aware of the officials, decisions, and priorities of their government,” got the letter through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
“The story of government masking advice should worry the people of the United States. Remember that at first, Dr. Fauci said that masks weren’t necessary. All that stood between you and COVID were the cloth masks. But when proof against cloth masks came out, the top scientific health organizations “dug in their heels and refused to follow the science or listen to their trusted outside advisors,” FGI said in a statement (pdf).
“The fact that Dr. Osterholm and his colleagues felt compelled to raise concerns about cherry-picked data and the threat it posed to the credibility of public health officials and the health of the public shows that something was very wrong with these agencies,” FGI said.