COVID study on child mask wearing, ivermectin withdrawn

Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his fellow COVID-19 denials argue that face masks endanger children and that drugs used for parasites may treat COVID-19. Recently I jumped at two controversial claims. Some cite two scientific studies to support them.

Problem: Those studies were subsequently withdrawn.

on Friday, JAMA Pediatrics Withdraw research One Carlson covered extensively at his show, claiming that face masks could expose children to increased levels of carbon dioxide. Tucker Carlson tonight.

It has increased widespread concern about the role that public figures like Carlson played in the deployment of vaccination in the United States, which has slowed among young people. The Biden administration is struggling to reach its goal of immunizing at least 70 percent of its population.

The study “Experimental assessment of carbon dioxide content in inhaled air with and without face masks in healthy children” was published last month by a group of German Polish and German doctors. It cited an study of 45 children using an incubator analyzer to identify carbon dioxide levels in two different types of facial coverings.

“After publication, many scientific issues were raised regarding research methodologies.” JAMA Written in it statement.. They cited the problem with the equipment used to measure carbon dioxide levels and whether the results accurately reflected the inhaled carbon dioxide.

“The editors withdrew this study letter because of the underlying concerns about the study methodology, the uncertainty about the validity of the findings and conclusions, and the potential public health implications,” he said.

The study was relentlessly promoted earlier this month by Carlson, who called the policy of wearing children’s masks “actually a massive human tragedy and a living proof of the recklessness of our leaders.” I did.He said Parents who have their children wear masks should report on child abuse..

“The study confirms that masking a child was simply unnecessary and probably not counterproductive,” Carlson said in his July 1 episode. “Masking a child was legally dangerous for the child.”

Further pushed by other COVID conspirators like before New York Times COVID-19 Reporter Alex Berenson has become one of the top denials of science.

“Children don’t have to wear facial diapers,” he exclaimed on July 1. TweetLink to JAMA paper.

The lead author of this study was Harald Wallac, a health researcher and former professor at the Poznan Medical University in Poland. This was not the first time Walach withdrew his research on COVID-19.

Science Magazine reported Earlier this month, at least six virologists quit scientific journals vaccine Regarding the publication of a June 24 study by Walach, who accuses the COVID-19 vaccine of causing side effects and death. The study was withdrawn on July 2, and Poznan fired Wallac on July 6.

Walach defended the child’s masking study in an email to The Daily Beast, stating that his work was done by experts who knew how to handle carbon dioxide measuring devices in accordance with the law.

“The equipment was sensitive and provided enough material to prove this,” he writes. “We measured the inspiratory air separately from the exhaled breath and invalidated the argument raised that it may not have been possible.”

Wallac wrote that he had not seen Carlson’s segment, but still supported his conclusions.

“Anyone who requires a child to wear a mask, that the carbon dioxide that the child inhales does not violate the safety limits, the bacterial content of this air (we did not measure, and as far as I know) I think we need to prove (what no one did) so far) can be ignored [sic] And the side effects documented by the large German survey we cited do not really exist, “he wrote.

The COVID science promoted by Carlson is not only in an unstable situation. During June Carlson promoted the use of ivermectin, A drug designed to combat parasites and lice as a tool for treating COVID-19.

While promoting ivermectin at the June and July shows, he repeatedly downplayed the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine and called on evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein to advocate drug usage.

Weinstein said the drug was being downplayed by the pharmaceutical industry to help promote the COVID-19 vaccine.He and his wife’s YouTube channel are monetized with disinformation claims, and the Food and Drug Administration Warning against The use of the drug it points out is not an antiviral drug.

The rise of the drug among right-wing figures, including Fox host Laura Ingraham, is supported by a November 2020 study conducted by Ahmed Elgazar at the University of Benha, Egypt and published through Research Square. Was done.

However, the unpeer-reviewed preprint study was withdrawn by Research Square on Wednesday because of “ethical concerns.” Jack Lawrence, Disinformation Blog Grftr, Elgazzar, found that it appears to have plagiarized certain elements of the study from the ivermectin press release, including most of the referrals.

He also appeared to have produced some of the data in the study, noting how unusually complete it was and the duplication of patient mortality.

“The authors claimed to have conducted the study between June 8 and September 20, 2020, but raw data show that most of the deceased patients were hospitalized and died before June 8. “He said. Parents..

Gideon Meerowitz Katz, an epidemiologist at the University of Wollongong, said: Parents The data was “completely forged”.

But one public health expert said JAMA Pediatrics’ Withdrawal of child masking research can make the fight against COVID-19 disinformation more difficult.

“The withdrawal is very radical,” Daniel Harperin, a professor at the University of North Carolina Gillings Global Public Health School, told The Daily Beast. “I don’t know if they did the right thing by withdrawing.”

Harperin said JAMA It should have allowed others to publicly respond to research methodologies through research papers, noting how they must go through the peer-review process for the paper to be published. However, a complete withdrawal of the paper could allow Carlson to claim that it was done for political reasons, if not so.

“It only feeds people like Tucker Carlson,” he said. “It makes things worse.”

Fox News did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.