Professor Tim Anderson is debating Professor Dennis Rancourt tonight in an event staged by the Off-Guardian. I hope Tim got my tweet in time, where I sent him the article below, but he's probably fully clued up on it all anyway.Dennis Rancourt, a physics professor, wrote an article saying that masks did not work, but when you clicked on the science articles he referred to, they said the opposite. How did he make such a crazy mistake, David Kyle Johnson has a few theories?When my colleague asked for scientific evidence to back this denial, the poster directed her to an article by Denis Rancourt, entitled “Masks Don’t Work.” And, indeed, Rancourt’s paper cited eight peer-reviewed essays, all from reputable journals. But when she actually clicked on the links provided, she found something
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Professor Tim Anderson is debating Professor Dennis Rancourt tonight in an event staged by the Off-Guardian. I hope Tim got my tweet in time, where I sent him the article below, but he's probably fully clued up on it all anyway.
Dennis Rancourt, a physics professor, wrote an article saying that masks did not work, but when you clicked on the science articles he referred to, they said the opposite. How did he make such a crazy mistake, David Kyle Johnson has a few theories?
When my colleague asked for scientific evidence to back this denial, the poster directed her to an article by Denis Rancourt, entitled “Masks Don’t Work.” And, indeed, Rancourt’s paper cited eight peer-reviewed essays, all from reputable journals. But when she actually clicked on the links provided, she found something very curious. None of the studies cited concluded what Rancourt says they did. For example, six of the eight studies measured the effectiveness of N95 respirators compared to surgical masks—not, as Rancourt implied, the effectiveness of wearing a mask vs. not wearing a mask.
A full debunking of Rancourt’s entire article would take more space and time than I have here (I have published one here), but at this point one would be justified in concluding that his entire argument is bunk.
Psychology Today
David Kyle Johnson Ph.D:Yes, Masks Work: Debunking the Pseudoscience