This is an article from a historian, i.e. not an expert on medicine. What is argued is that we haven't disproved that mask works.
The problem is that this doesn't mean anything. For example, we haven't disproved UFOs. We haven't disproved aliens are watching us. We haven't disproved ivermectin.
Now, we meet people who insist that UFOs exist, aliens watch us, or ivermectin is the cure for covid, and we are skeptical about them.
If you read the article, the author only writes that masks aren't disproved of their efficiency and that it was wrong to say masks don't work.
So, a good scientist would understand that there's only weak evidence for the efficiency of masks raised in this article. The author probably knows that. In that sense, he hasn't lied.
However, I suspect he also knew that ordinaries would read this article and jump to the conclusion that masks do work.
We have disproved ivermectin. Because it's an antiparasitic, not an antiviral.
No we haven't.
We don't prove negatives in science, or in medicine. We just know that in the studies we have performed, we have not noticed any meaningful effects and we can conclude there is likely no observable benefit to taking the drug for that purpose.
We don’t prove negatives in science
That's simply not true as a general statement lol it very much depends on the negative in question, or what you define as a negative
I am a pro-masker, but I don't like this article.
This is an article from a historian, i.e. not an expert on medicine. What is argued is that we haven't disproved that mask works.
The problem is that this doesn't mean anything. For example, we haven't disproved UFOs. We haven't disproved aliens are watching us. We haven't disproved ivermectin.
Now, we meet people who insist that UFOs exist, aliens watch us, or ivermectin is the cure for covid, and we are skeptical about them.
If you read the article, the author only writes that masks aren't disproved of their efficiency and that it was wrong to say masks don't work.
So, a good scientist would understand that there's only weak evidence for the efficiency of masks raised in this article. The author probably knows that. In that sense, he hasn't lied.
However, I suspect he also knew that ordinaries would read this article and jump to the conclusion that masks do work.
We have disproved ivermectin. Because it's an antiparasitic, not an antiviral.
No we haven't.
We don't prove negatives in science, or in medicine. We just know that in the studies we have performed, we have not noticed any meaningful effects and we can conclude there is likely no observable benefit to taking the drug for that purpose.
That's simply not true as a general statement lol it very much depends on the negative in question, or what you define as a negative