[gas_dr]

Just out of curiosity who would you perform a randomized and blinded study wherein people wear a mask — by definition you can see who is in what group which would lead to bias.

As others have pointed out, this is a technical term that few people understand.

[circlecity]

Ok, how about ANY peer reviewed study showing the efficacy of cloth or paper masks. Because there are several showing they are ineffective.

[BDParrish]

I think I learned from you (was it Mom MD?) that the problem with all this is that COVID-19 is not virulent enough for this treatment to show undeniable quantifiable results. If more people were killed by this virus it would be easy to see the difference that a treatment makes.

The effect of bias on a treatment can be quantified and understood. In fact all bias need not be removed nor could it even be. We need to remove the effect of bias on the result or enough of the effect of it to see the actual result. (Please correct me.)

Did you see the study comparing relative risk of COVID-19 mortality with the relative risk of driving a car? Would the flubros want to see this?

"Population-level COVID-19 mortality risk for non-elderly individuals overall and for non-elderly individuals without underlying diseases in pandemic epicenters."