Research that competes for the effectiveness of face masks is not “Stanford research,” says the medical school

Stanford University School of Medicine revealed on Wednesday that the authors of a study challenging the use of face masks to prevent COVID-19 are not currently affiliated with Stanford or the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System.School said in statement Strong support for the use of face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

journal paper, “Face Mask in the COVID-19 Era: Health Hypothesis” Accidentally Masking claims to be “ineffective” in preventing the spread of the coronavirus and can cause conditions such as hypoxia. This article was recently published on social media and conservative outlets after being published online in Medical Hypotheses in November.

The author of the study, Baruch Vainshelboim, states in the article that he belongs to the Veterans Palo Alto Healthcare System / Stanford University School of Cardiology.

However, Stanford Medical School said the author’s qualifications were inaccurate and demanded corrections.

The school has issued a statement that Vainshelboim has nothing to do with Palo Alto VA Hospital or Stanford University since 2016, when he was a visiting scholar for a year “on issues unrelated to this treatise.”

According to Julie Glacius, a spokesperson for the School of Medicine, Vineshell Boyme was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of researchers at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System from October 2015 to September 2016.

“He is no longer officially employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs or Stanford University,” Graceius wrote. “His terms and conditions limited his use of the VA / Stanford title to the term of his visiting scholar.”

Unable to contact Vainshelboim, Medical Hypotheses publisher Elsevier did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, said false attribution damages the reputation of the VA system, medical school, and its faculties.

“This is nonsense,” Spiegel said of the article. “The charade of this pseudo-academic presentation without actual academic rigor is dangerous.”

The claims of Vainshelboim’s article on face masks have been exposed by many fact-checking organizations, including: AFP fact check, Associated Press, Snopes And Politifact..

Vainshelboim has nothing to do with Stanford, but a few university affiliates, including Hoover’s senior fellow Scott Atlas and professor of medicine Jay Battacharia. Criticized By a public health expert who disseminated false information.

Atlas, a radiologist with no background in epidemiology and infectious diseases, Asked Mask effectiveness in many cases.Batacharya Said At a recent roundtable meeting with the Governor of Florida, wearing masks among children was “developmentally inappropriate and unhelpful in the spread of the disease.”

The university was originally Decline Hoover Fellow’s view is protected by academic freedom and confronts Atlas’ controversial position on children’s masking, herd immunity and infection.

Stanford University after Atlas urged Michigan residents to “stand up” in opposition to the new blockade order statement He is the only Atlas, and his view is “contradictory to the university’s approach to a pandemic.”

Spiegel said it was correct for the medical school to quickly deny Weinshell Boym, but added that he wanted the university to be as aggressive as closing the distance from Atlas.

“I was very confused that the school was less candid about criticizing Atlas,” Spiegel said, as Atlas “weakened a good public health approach to controlling a pandemic. We are responsible for the deaths of many Americans, “he added.

Graceius refused to comment on Atlas, but the medical team’s media team wrote that if their affiliation or Stanford title was incorrectly assigned, they would submit a correction request to the press.

“In this case, the study itself was misrepresented as a’Stanford study’, but it’s not,” Greicius wrote.

The claim that masking is “ineffective” is inconsistent with the current guidance of public health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Also recently Meta-analysis Lancet concludes that “wearing a face mask protects people (both health care workers and the general public) from infection.”

The Medical Hypotheses guidelines state that “if they are coherently expressed, consider fundamental, speculative, non-mainstream scientific ideas.”

The journal faced a backlash in 2009 after publishing a paper denying the established link between HIV and AIDS. The article was later withdrawn. Journal editor Mehar Manku Said In 2010, Medical Hypotheses stated that “publishing papers that are otherwise unacceptable” should be published.

According to Graceius, both Weinshell Boym and Mank have responded to Stanford’s requested corrections, but the school has not received confirmation of the change.